Officials - Climate change forecasts may take five years

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration told Congress Wednesday it needs up to five years to develop scientific forecasts before deciding how best to address global warming.

House Science Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and other members of his committee praised the competence of administration officials but expressed dissatisfaction with what they described as limited information being provided about the White House's climate change policies. "We really don't have a policy," said Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., who cautioned that officials' statements could be providing false hope. "There's a lot of rhetoric and not a lot of action."

Assistant Commerce Secretary James R. Mahoney said the administration was "now ready to move into a new time of differentiation and strategy evaluation" extending over the next two to five years -- depending, of course, on whether President Bush is re-elected in November 2004 -- that would help the nation develop strategies to minimize climate change risks.

White House science adviser John H. Marburger III told the House Science Committee that human-caused greenhouse gases, produced by the burning of oil and coal, have been "a major driver" of climate warming the past century.

The report mostly blamed human activity for global warming but acknowledged some lingering scientific uncertainties. Bush's top environmental and economic advisers were to face similar questioning on climate change today.