An editorial in Monday's New York Times [1] heavily criticizes President George W. Bush over the recent U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali. Instead of the U.S acting as an active participant and being a leader in the recent talks, the delegation served as the biggest roadblock. Despite, albeit vague, assurances from China and pleas from European allies, U.S. delegates offered nothing except what is essentially a promise to talk about the issue further at a later date.

The editorial also criticized the Senate, saying it took what seemed to be a very good energy bill from the House and turned it into a merely "decent" one. The editorial explained that the Senate was unable to resist pressure from Bush and the oil and gas lobby and killed two very important provisions of the House version energy bill. The first would have repealed $12 billion in tax incentives to the oil industry and used the funds for renewable energy. The second provision would have mandated that investor-owned utilities generate power from renewable energy.