Bill Clinton says President Bush is "flat wrong" to reject the Kyoto treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on economic grounds telling an audience at the U.N.'s climate conference in Montreal, "we could meet and surpass the Kyoto targets in a way that would strengthen and not weaken our economies." Clinton and then-vice president Al Gore were instrumental in the formulation of the original Kyoto treaty in 1997, which would have required a 29 percent cut in emissions from 1990 levels by 2012.
President Bush has come under fire from environmentalists for formally renouncing the agreement, but in 1997, the Senate voted 95-0 against even considering the treaty and warned President Clinton not to even send it to them, saying the United States shouldn't sign anything that would "result in serious harm to the economy of the United States." As a result, President Clinton never even submitted the Kyoto Treaty for ratification.
President Bush has come under fire from environmentalists for formally renouncing the agreement, but in 1997, the Senate voted 95-0 against even considering the treaty and warned President Clinton not to even send it to them, saying the United States shouldn't sign anything that would "result in serious harm to the economy of the United States." As a result, President Clinton never even submitted the Kyoto Treaty for ratification.
