An Inconvenient Photo Op

There are many ironies in today's photo op of Al Gore and other U.S. Nobel laureates in the Oval Office. News stories about the meeting tend to mention the disputed Florida recount. But perhaps more poignant is the faded memory of candidate George W. Bush talking about reducing carbon emissions in the 2000 campaign, a move clearly designed to blur the differences between the two on environmental issues.
This is what Bush had to say about carbon controls on September 29, 2000:

With the help of Congress, environmental groups and industry, we will require all power plants to meet clean air standards in order to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and carbon dioxide within a reasonable period of time.

It took Bush only 54 days after taking office to repudiate that promise, and another 2,267 days after that to publicly acknowledge that reducing carbon emissions might make sense after all.
Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing