Remember when…

Remember back, if you will, to March of 2001 when President Bush rejected the Kyoto agreement…

As you know, I oppose the Kyoto Protocol because it exempts 80 percent of the world, including major population centers such as China and India, from compliance, and would cause serious harm to the U.S. economy. The Senate’s vote, 95-0, shows that there is a clear consensus that the Kyoto Protocol is an unfair and ineffective means of addressing global climate change concerns.

The media went crazy because the President rejected a plan that was negotiated with over 100 countries (even though only 38 would have been forced to comply with its protocol), and then organizations, like Greenpeace released statements like the following:

“U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol in an extreme disappointment. U.S. action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is essential to international efforts to prevent dangerous global warming. Nevertheless, the treaty will be beneficial and start the world moving in the right direction,” said Kert Davies, Director of Greenpeace’s U.S. Global Warming Campaign. “President Bush is wrong when he says reducing greenhouse gas emissions will hurt the U.S. economy. Bush ignores the economic benefits of U.S. leadership on 21st century energy technology,” Davies continued.

Do you remember how outraged the mainstream media was with the actions of President Bush? Well, now he has company, or does he?

Russia cannot ratify the Kyoto Protocol because it would seriously limit its economic growth, presidential adviser Andrei Illarionov said yesterday.

But Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter and a big exporter of natural gas. That creates an influential anti-Kyoto constituency, arguing that a treaty intended to be a first step towards weaning the world off fossil fuels is not in Russia’s long-term interests.

I guess only time will tell if President Bush was much wiser about the “Kyoto Krap” than most people thought.