WASHINGTON – Senator Frank H. Murkowski, Ranking Republican Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, commented today on the broad political agreement reached by negotiators in Bonn, Germany on the operational rules for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. "The partial agreement reached in Bonn only makes a flawed Kyoto Protocol worse for America.. The negotiators have implemented rules that will make the Kyoto Protocol more expensive and less effective at reducing the risks posed by climate change. "By placing new restrictions on the use of market-oriented mechanisms such as emissions trading, new limits on carbon sequestration 'sinks', prohibiting the use of nuclear power in developing nations, and requiring that emissions targets be met mainly through domestic action, the Kyoto Protocol is now even more inconsistent with the Byrd-Hagel Resolution passed by the Senate in 1997, and it is now even less likely, in my opinion, that Kyoto will ever be ratified by the Senate. "These developments further confirm the wisdom of President Bush's decision to reject the Kyoto Protocol." Murkowski signaled the need for a new way forward on climate change, and added that "several U.S. and multi-national companies have already started to reduce emissions even without the Protocol, and China – who isn't a party to the Kyoto Protocol – has reduced its emissions by 17% while growing its economy 36% since the mid-1990s." "As these voluntary efforts demonstrate, we don't need the Kyoto Protocol to responsibly manage the risk of climate change. I look forward to the alternative to Kyoto that will be proposed by the President in the next few months." ###