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 The True Measure Of Things - Air Force One Press Gaggle by Robert Gibbs 7/8/09 — Thursday, July 09, 2009 —  MR. GIBBS: I came back during the only part of the flight that was bumpy. (Laughter.)Q Yes, that's what we said right before you came back here. One more G8 question, also on numbers. Can you say whether the U.S. is decided or is going to support limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius? MR. GIBBS: Well, look, I think the biggest -- the biggest thing that surrounds all of this as it relates to global warming and climate change are the big steps that the House took only a week or so ago to put our country strongly on record as taking bold action against forces that are changing the temperature and the environment of our planet. Obviously the President has talked about a great deal about this during the campaign. There are important -- there's important progress that we can make as a part of this in creating a market for clean energy jobs, incentivizing those jobs, and using that as part of the foundation for long-term economic growth rather than having what the President has talked about, the sort of boom and bust cycles of the economy or have the economy as it has been -- have the growth of the economy largely predicated on personal consumption. So I think we've taken a strong step forward. Q In the G8 perspective -- I understand that that's Obama's position, but what about the negotiating parts here at the G8? What is the administration's position going to be on that two degrees Celsius goal? MR. GIBBS: Let me get a little bit better guidance on that, except, again, I would say that I think our biggest contribution to this is the steps that were taken by the House to put us strongly on record on this. Q Does the President view the European proposal as politically plausible in this country? MR. GIBBS: Well, I think we've all seen that in -- that this is not the easiest thing to do. I think part of that is because you've seen opponents of taking strong action on global warming take a lot of license with the impacts of any proposal. I think the legislation that came out of -- it's always -- I'm always amused to find that the CBO is the credible agency, if you will, of record -- until they're not. And in the case of the climate change legislation, remember the CBO came out and said that the cost for a family in 2020 would be approximately $170. Now, only a few days before, when the CBO was talking about health care, it seemed like many people thought the CBO was written on a stone tablet -- until they got this report and many questioned the CBO. So I think in many ways, some of the difficulty in this is getting around what you hear from opponents that think we don't need to take any action, that we don't need to change anything that we're doing, or that we don't need to lay that long-term foundation for clean energy jobs. But I think -- the President has talked about this for several years, and we've made I think some bold steps in Congress to get something to the President's desk this year. Q Robert, let me go at that a little bit differently. On climate change, how would the President define success at this G8? I understand your position about what the House has done and trying to have momentum. But how do you define success? MR. GIBBS: Well, look, I think in many ways success for us is going to be getting something through Congress and to his desk that puts in place a system, a market-based system that lessens the amount of greenhouses gases in the air. Look, that's going to be the true measure of things. Air Force One | Congressional Budget Office | G8 | Global Warming | Press Gaggle | Robert Gibbs | White House Press Corps Labels: Air Force One, Congressional Budget Office, G8, Global Warming, Press Gaggle, Robert Gibbs, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 11:56:00 PM
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