Stop Polluting, Please

By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK

Ever since the threat of global warming seared its way into public consciousness during the record-breaking heat wave of 1988, environmentalists have been pushing governments to take action. Auto engines, power plants and landfills spew out carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping gases by the ton. Left unchecked, many scientists believe, the buildup in the atmosphere could create the greenhouse effect, boosting temperatures and changing weather patterns in unpredictable, probably destructive ways. At last year's Rio Earth Summit, world leaders agreed that emissions of greenhouse gases should be curbed, but at the insistence of the U.S., the resulting treaty contained no firm goals or mandatory steps. The White House didn't get serious about the issue until the election of eco-conscious Bill Clinton, who pledged in April to forge a concrete strategy against what he calls "perhaps the biggest environmental threat to this planet."

Yet when Clinton's "Climate Change Action Plan" finally debuted last week, environmentalists could muster only faint praise. Aimed at rolling back greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000, the document lists 50 initiatives, including incentives to spur use of public transit and expanded programs to promote energy efficiency. But there are two major omissions: the plan does nothing to raise auto-fuel-economy standards, and it contains no | energy-tax hikes to boost conservation.

Most disturbing to the green brigade, the measures are mostly voluntary. Says William Roberts of the Environmental Defense Fund: "If voluntary programs don't work, you better have a backup." The backup here seems to be wait and see: if it isn't working in a few years, Clinton will propose tougher measures.

In fairness, the White House insists that its ideas on auto-fuel economy will appear in an upcoming proposal. And the President wants to fight global warming without weakening the economy, losing jobs or hurting American competitiveness. Since the Administration already faces a battle with Congress over health-care reform, it made sense to avoid calls for new legislation, especially energy taxes. Remember how quickly Congress extinguished the BTU tax during the budget debate.

Instead of laying out laws and regulations, the plan relies heavily on "partnerships for progress," in which the government will help industry decide how to spend the $60 billion (the White House's suggested figure) in private-sector money needed to reach the pollution-reduction target by the year 2000. Government agencies, for example, will help businesses evaluate their heating systems and suggest ways to make them more energy efficient.

That's fine -- if companies are interested in investing money now to reap savings later. But many executives insist that scientists have not absolutely proved that significant global warming will occur. While that's true, the evidence was enough to persuade dozens of nations to sign the Rio treaty. Clinton is counting on industry to accept that even if climate change is not a certainty, it's smart to buy some insurance against disaster.

With reporting by Ted Gup/Washington