U.S. agency: Voluntary climate action has limits

WASHINGTON – Voluntary pollution-reduction programs touted by the Bush administration as part of the solution to global warming have “limited potential” to reduce greenhouse gases, according to an internal government watchdog.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General’s Office said industry’s unwillingness to participate and unreliable data that casts doubt on claimed reductions are hindering efforts to control some of the most potent greenhouse gases from aluminum smelters, landfills, coal mines and large farms.

At best, the 11 different programs, all but one of which were launched during the Clinton administration, would achieve a 19 percent reduction in methane, sulfur hexafluoride and other non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases projected to come from those industries in 2010, the EPA IG’s office said in a report.

MSNBC