Bush Moves to Counter Gas Emissions

President Bush, center, followed by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. right, and EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, left, walks from the Oval Office to the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, May 14, 2007, to speak about CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards and alternative fuel standards. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Charles Dharapak - AP)

All this left environmentalists and Democrats on Capitol Hill concerned. A report this month from a United Nations network of over 2,000 scientists estimates the world must stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere within eight years to keep global temperatures from spiking to disastrous levels.

The environmental group Environmental Defense said the effort "will fall far short of fixing the climate problem" without mandatory caps on carbon emissions.

"Whether EPA will lead the fight against global warming or lead us to a hotter planet remains to be seen," said Environmental Defense President Fred Krupp.

Bush and administration officials said the process will take time because it is so complicated. Johnson indicated that _ at the least _ the new rules could implement the president's plan for reducing gas consumption by 20 percent over 10 years.

As announced in Bush's State of the Union address in January, this plan envisions increasing the country's use of alternative fuels to 35 billion gallons by 2017. It also would give the administration the ability to rewrite mileage rules for passenger cars, which now must meet a two-decades-old fleet average of 27.5 mpg, so that they are based on a vehicle's size.

Bush says this is a safe way to boost car mileage, but critics say it could spur the production of more gas guzzlers. It is less ambitious than a bill approved earlier this month in a Senate committee, which would raise the nationwide fleet fuel economy to an average of 35 mpg by 2020, and others being drafted in the House.

Johnson said that since the Supreme Court decision gave the EPA "significant latitude" as to how to comply with its regulatory obligations, the administration interprets that as the authority to implement Bush's proposal without congressional approval.

However, he stressed that legislation to Bush's liking is preferable.