From The Independent:
Haley Barbour, one of the main lobbyists for Southern Co when President Bush took office, played a crucial role in persuading him to back away from his original campaign promise to reduce CO2 emissions when he first ran for president in 2000. Mr Barbour is a former chairman of the Republican Party, and was reelected governor of Mississippi last week.
According to FrankO'Donnell of Clean Air Watch, after Mr Bush became president, "he was got at by Haley Barbour, who said, 'Hey, Mr President we didn't elect you to have high energy costs'".
Mr O'Donnell said: "Southern Company Lobbyists treated the president as if he was someone to give orders to and he took them. The upshot is that America's biggest polluters used their chequebooks effectively to block actions to stop global warming."
I doubt very much persuasion was involved. We should remember that Bush's career background, such as it was, was in the oil industry. Of course he'd promise to reduce CO2 emissions -- he was running against Al Gore, after all -- but he also stated firm opposition to "nation-building" and "being the world's police," and we know where that went.
ReplyDelete