Book Excerpt: Losing the Green Light

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Unfortunately, as I was to learn later, before I had even boarded the plane to come home, an effort was being launched to persuade the President to reverse himself. Before I had left for Italy, the White House office of legislative affairs had started to hear complaints about statements I had made regarding the President's support for a carbon dioxide emissions cap, and the Administration had begun a review of the campaign promise. Once I repeated those statements at the G8, those opposing that proposal had shifted into high gear. While I was writing my memo to the President, four Republican Senators--Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Larry Craig of Idaho and Pat Roberts of Kansas--were writing a letter of their own to him, expressing their strong opposition to his campaign promise. Within the week after I had returned from Trieste, EPA staff had been called to numerous White House meetings to discuss the issue.

From the reports I was getting, the White House staff, in concert with the Vice President's office and senior staff from other departments, including the departments of Energy and Commerce, was using the California energy crisis to justify a reversal. Since half of the nation's energy needs are met by burning coal--the biggest producer of carbon dioxide emissions--they predicted a cap would reduce the availability and raise the cost of coal-generated power, at least in the short term. They asserted that the country's energy supply would be seriously disrupted unless the President reversed his position.

I knew the President was facing considerable pressure, but when the White House asked me to hold time early the following week to meet with the President on this issue, I thought I still had a chance to make my case for keeping his pledge. But as soon as the President and I sat down, I realized that I wasn't there to state my case--I was there to be told that he had decided to reverse himself. He knew that his decision was leaving me out on a limb, and he apologized for that, and he did so again in front of the entire Cabinet at its next meeting. He told me he believed, however, that the looming national energy crisis made it unwise to impose any additional environmental burdens on utilities. I believed the President could keep his promise without threatening the energy supply, by phasing the mandatory reductions in over a period of years, enabling utilities to make whatever adjustments they needed to reduce their emissions without crippling their ability to meet the nation's energy needs. The White House didn't see it that way.