BUSH ADMINISTRATION REBUFFS EUROPE ON CLIMATE CHANGE.(backs out of Kyoto agreement)(Brief Article)

Bush administration officials have rejected a plea from European negotiators for the U.S. to fulfill its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. Bush's decision to pull out of the Kyoto talks prompted criticism last month by European regulators who say they will go forward with the protocol without the U.S. (p. 35).

EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman says the Bush Administration is optimistic it "can develop technologies, market-based incentives, and other innovative approaches to global climate change." The protocol is unfair …