Bush backed out on the promises on the campaign trail to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants; within two months of taking office he walked away from his commitment.
The administration prioritized technological solutions to combat climate change, such as the $1.2 billion Hydrogen Fuel Initiative and the FreedomCAR program, aimed at reducing carbon emissions from vehicles and promoting energy independence.
[3][4] Reports emerged of political pressure on scientists to downplay the threat of global warming, edits to scientific documents, and suppression of key findings related to climate change.
[1][6][7] In a letter sent to Senator Chuck Hagel, he cited increasing energy costs,[8][9] and an "incomplete state of scientific knowledge of the causes of, and solutions to, global climate change and the lack of commercially available technologies for removing and storing carbon dioxide".
[24][25][26] This forum sought to expand the use of nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels internationally by encouraging cooperation in research and development for Generation IV reactors.
[28] In 2001, petroleum company executives, which includes ExxonMobil, Conoco, Shell Oil, and BP America met with Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force.
[29] In June 2005, US State Department papers showed the Bush administration thanking Exxon executives for the company's "active involvement" in helping to determine climate change policy, including the U.S. stance on Kyoto.
[31] "'They've got a political clientele that does not want to be regulated,' says Rick S. Piltz, a former Bush climate official who blew the whistle on White House censorship of global-warming documents in 2005.
By pursuing a carefully orchestrated policy of delay, the White House blocked even the most modest reforms and replaced them with token investments in futuristic solutions like hydrogen cars.
To head up the council, Cheney installed James Connaughton, a former lobbyist for industrial polluters, who once worked to help General Electric and ARCO skirt responsibility for their Superfund waste sites.
Similarly, according to the testimony of senior officers of the Government Accountability Project, the White House attempted to bury the report "National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change," produced by U.S. scientists pursuant to U.S.
[3] Also, the White House removed key portions of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report given to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee about the dangers to human health of global warming.
US officials, such as Philip Cooney, have repeatedly edited scientific reports from US government scientists, [35] many of whom, such as Thomas Knutson, have been ordered to refrain from discussing climate change and related topics.
[36][37][38] Climate scientist James E. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, claimed in a widely cited New York Times article [39] in 2006 that his superiors at the agency were trying to "censor" information "going out to the public."
NASA denied this, saying that it was merely requiring that scientists make a distinction between personal, and official government, views in interviews conducted as part of work done at the agency.
In 2006, the BBC's long-running current affairs series Panorama investigated the issue, and was told that "scientific reports about global warming have been systematically changed and suppressed.
"[41] According to an Associated Press release on January 30, 2007, ...climate scientists at seven government agencies say they have been subjected to political pressure aimed at downplaying the threat of global warming.
[49] The administration’s early actions, such as supporting the 2002 Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act, suggested a willingness to empower states.
[49] Mary Peters, the transportation secretary at that time, personally directed US efforts to urge governors and dozens of members of the House of Representatives to block California's first-in-the-nation limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks, according to e-mails obtained by Congress.