美國布希總統自2001年上任以來，一直反對溫室氣體法規的通過，而14日首度簽訂一項行政命令給4個聯邦單位，要求發展法規條例，限制新的移動污染源釋放溫室氣體。
布希指示環保署、交通部、能源部及農業部共同努力，「保護環境，運用可靠的科學與成本效益分析，在兼顧公共安全與經濟成長之下，研擬管制機動車輛、非道路車輛與機具所釋放的溫室氣體。」
布希的新政策是依據美國最高法院4月2日針對麻州控告環保署案的裁定。在該案中，麻州控告聯邦政府拒絕管制車輛所釋放的溫室氣體，已違反空氣清淨法的規定。
布希已經送交國會提案，將以二個步驟達成目標。第一：2017年以前要求生產350億加侖的再生能源、或其他替代性能源的強制燃料標準。布希表示：「這是目前目標的5倍。」第二：增加小貨車和汽車的能源使用效率。
然而，美國眾議院議長裴洛西(Nancy Pelosi)在國會山莊發表聲明表示：「布希總統明顯地在任期屆滿之前，根本不想滿足我們的能源需求，因為這項行政命令對促進能源獨立一點幫助都沒有。此外，這無疑是讓環保署陷於無窮盡的部會折衝協調，因此，很確定將不會有任何行具體執行方案來管理車輛的溫室氣體釋放。」
After resisting the regulation of greenhouse gases since he took office in 2001, President George W. Bush today signed an Executive Order directing four federal agencies to develop regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new mobile sources.
The President directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Agriculture to work together "to protect the environment with respect to greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, nonroad vehicles, and nonroad engines, in a manner consistent with sound science, analysis of benefits and costs, public safety, and economic growth," the Executive Order states.
The President's new policy is based on a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court April 2 in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Bush administration failed to follow the requirements of the Clean Air Act when it refused to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles.
Bush has sent Congress a proposal that would meet this goal in two steps. First, a mandatory fuel standard that requires 35 billion gallons of renewable and other alternative fuels by 2017. "That's nearly five times the current target," he said. The second step is an increase in fuel efficiency standards for light trucks and cars.
On Capitol Hill, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said, "It appears that the President wants to run out the clock to the end of his term without addressing our energy needs, because the executive order will do nothing to promote energy independence. Instead," Pelosi said, "it is clearly designed to bog down the Environmental Protection Agency in a bureaucratic interagency process that will ensure that no steps are taken to regulate greenhouse gases from motor vehicles."
全文及圖片詳見 ENS報導
