WITHDRAWL SYMPYOMS

President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that he may lose the fight to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling. In a press conference, the president said he will push to exploit oil and gas resources elsewhere in the nation if Congress doesn't sanction drilling in the refuge. Bush also defended his move to rescind a rule approved by former President Clinton to lower the amount of arsenic allowable in drinking water to the same level adopted by the World Heath Organization and European Union. He suggested that the level wasn't based on sound science. Responding to criticism about his decisions not to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and to back out of the Kyoto treaty on climate change, Bush said, "The idea of placing caps on CO2 does not make economic sense for America."

straight to the source:
Los Angeles Times, James Gerstenzang, 30 Mar 2001
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environ/20010330/t000027314.html

straight to the source:
New York Times, Katharine Q. Seelye, 30 Mar 2001

read it only in Grist Magazine:
10 reasons to drill-- the case for oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- satire in our opinions section http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho032201.stm

On a related story.

Loud international criticism of President Bush's decision to withdraw from the Kyoto treaty on climate change continued yesterday, and a broad coalition of U.S. religious groups urged Bush to revisit the decision. At a meeting in Montreal, environmental ministers from North and South America canceled a long-planned statement on how to proceed with implementing Kyoto and instead pressed U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman to explain the U.S. position. "Kyoto clearly is not perfect, but Kyoto is what we've got," said a top Canadian negotiator, Paul Fauteux. Whitman tried to reassure the officials, but had no alternative plan on global warming to offer them. She left the two-day conference a day early, citing "other commitments."

straight to the source:
Toronto Globe and Mail, Mark MacKinnon and Martin Mittelstaedt, 30 Mar 2001 http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate/C/200103