A Domestic Dispute: Clinton, Congress, and International Environmental Policy

摘要

Bill Clinton and Al Gore's election victory in November 1992 raised hopes that the United States would again take a leadership role in formulating international environmental policy. At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (also known as the Earth Summit) just five months earlier, President George Bush had stood virtually alone among the leaders of the world's industrialized nations by refusing to undertake firm international commitments in two key areas: climate change and biodiversity. He maintained this position in spite of intense criticism from U.S. envirbn-mental activists and Democratic lead-Congress and an extraordinary plea by his own administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), William K. Reilly, the nominal leader of the U.S. delegation to the summit.