Bush's Hot Air Plan

In a tricky maneuver, President [Bush Sr.] managed to sound like he was advocating reducing emissions when he stated that his voluntary goal is to reduce greenhouse gas "intensity" by 18 percent. But intensity is different from quantity of emissions. Greenhouse gas intensity is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions emitted for a given unit of GDP. The Bush plan would put carbon dioxide intensity at 151 metric tons per million dollars of GDP by 2012. The 2000 U.S. CO2 intensity was 183 metric tons CO2/million dollars GDP (and 191 metric tons if you include all GHGs). Therefore, the CO2 intensity of the U.S. economy would decline by 17.4 percent by 2012, yet under his plan total emissions would increase. Since 1990 GHG intensity has been declining in the U.S. mainly because strong economic growth has outpaced the rise in pollution as the economy has experienced a structural shift to lighter, less polluting industries. But emissions grew dramatically at the same time also because of strong economic growth and a dramatic increase in the amount of emissions from the transportation sector.

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