President Bush has disowned a pledge to regulate power plant CO2 emissions that he made during his election campaign. Citing an Energy Department study that predicted that this would lead to “significantly higher electricity prices,” he has changed policy.
He said: “At a time when California has already experienced energy shortages and other western states are worried about the price and availability of energy this summer, we must be very careful not to take actions that could harm consumers.” Europe has expressed concern about this change of policy in the light of climate change negotiations, which are due to resume in July.
