Seven Years of Failure: Bush gets an F for the Earth

President Bush's Rose Garden speech on global warming yesterday lacked any real commitment to reducing greenhouse gas pollution and proved again that he will continue to oppose global warming solutions. Instead, the president described a long term goal devoid of specific commitments to binding emissions reductions. In addition, he publicly opposed the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act that would tackle global warming.

But this stubbornness is nothing new. As the timeline below shows, the Bush administration has spent the past seven years obstructing progress toward creating a low-carbon economy that will help to decrease emissions, which slow global warming and stimulate growth in the renewable energy industry.

Click and drag anywhere on the timeline to scan backwards in time all the way to the opening days of the Bush administration’s environmental failures in 2001. Click on the events for more information.

Despite the administration’s opposition, there have been some successes over the years. The Supreme Court recognized the urgency to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. In the absence of federal action, policymakers on the state and local levels, from California to Maine, to the mayors of 600 U.S. cities, have undertaken their own steps to curb emissions. Even Congress is beginning to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy, with the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act under Senate consideration this June.

The Bush administration has made it clear that they will not capitalize on the opportunity presented by global warming to create a low-carbon economy. It will be up to the next president to seize the energy opportunity and make the United States a global leader on solving the crisis of global warming.

Read more from CAP:

• Capturing the Energy Opportunity