And the reaction: At home and abroad, the response to President Bush’s strategy for dealing with global warming was tepid at best. Pointing to counterexamples in Europe, U.S. critics disagreed with Bush’s claim that mandatory emissions limits would damage the economy and said the plan was simply a sweet deal for big business. Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) called it a “three-legged horse.” Japan’s environment minister politely acknowledged Bush’s efforts but called them insufficient. The German government said the U.S. plan was almost certainly doomed to fail, and the French environment minister called on the European Union to oppose Bush’s plan and ratify the Kyoto Protocol instead.
