Via Dave Roberts, this timeline of Bush's various lies, obfuscations, stalls, and positions on climate change is rather interesting. At this point, he appears to be trying to run out the clock on his term, gumming any initiatives up in bureaucratic negotiations that will surely drag on past January of 2009. But it's worth noting what his more sophisticated dodges have been, namely, that the answer is technological innovation, and that we can't do anything till China and India do.
In reply, the innovation will accelerate when it needs to accelerate, which is when carbon-intensive technologies grow economically unfeasible. That's why we need some sort of cap or tax: Because that's the only policy capable of sufficiently supercharging and incentivizing innovation. And China and India aren't going to take any action till we do, and will need our help, and the technology we produce, to wean themselves off coal.
