[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
[August 4, 1997]
[Pages 1041-1042]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 1041]]


Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Business Leaders and an Exchange With 
Reporters
August 4, 1997

Helen Thomas' Birthday

    The President. Before we start, I think it's only fair to note that 
we are observing another anniversary of Helen's [Helen Thomas, United 
Press International] 50th birthday. [Laughter] We wanted to give you a 
birthday cake with a telltale number of----

[At this point, participants sang ``Happy Birthday.'']

    Ms. Thomas. Now may I have a press conference? [Laughter]
    The President. I'm going to make a statement, and you get the 
questions. [Laughter]
    Ms. Thomas. Thank you.
    The President. Take it to the press room and cut it up. [Laughter]
    Ms. Thomas. Thank you. This is painful. [Laughter]
    The President. You don't make it look that way. It's painful for me, 
too. [Laughter]

Action on Climate Change

    I'm glad to be joined today by the CEO's of 10 Fortune 500 companies 
who have come here to meet with me on climate change. These companies 
represent electric utilities, the oil and gas industry, finance, high 
technology, and heavy industry. They are all intimately interested in 
this issue and will be affected by whatever happens on it in our country 
and throughout the world. We want a responsible approach to climate 
change. We believe that the science makes it clear that the climate is 
changing. I want to proceed based on some fairly straightforward and 
simple principles.
    First of all, as we get ready for the Kyoto conference, I believe 
there should be realistic but binding limits to emissions of greenhouse 
gases. I believe that we have to do it in a way that keeps our economy 
growing. And I believe that we ought to embrace flexible, market-based 
policies. I believe we should reemphasize and reenergize our efforts in 
research and development to find as many technological solutions to this 
as possible and to keep our Nation in the forefront of what is now a 
$400 billion market for environmental technologies. And finally, I 
believe the agreement has to be a global one. I think all nations, 
developed and developing, should be a part of this. So this is part of 
an ongoing process that I and our administration have undertaken to try 
to make sure we're working together with all the people who would be 
affected by this issue and try to reach, hopefully, a common position.
    We're going to have a good meeting today, and I'm looking forward to 
it. And again, I want to thank all the executives for coming here and 
giving vent to their views.
    Q. What do you think of the opposition, who says there is no such 
thing as global warming and that they don't agree with the scientists--
some of the scientists?
    The President. Well, I think that the real question is--I don't 
think that very many people disagree with the fact that there is climate 
change now. I think there's some disagreement about what the impact of 
it is and what the appropriate response is. There's still some debate 
there. But I think the scientific evidence for the fact of climate 
change is pretty compelling. We had that panel of scientists, including 
the Nobel Prize winners, here the other day, and I received a letter 
from--I don't know, over 2,500 of them--from scientists about it.
    So I think that there's pretty clear evidence that the climate is 
changing and could be changing substantially. There is still some 
difference about what the consequences of that will be and what we ought 
to do about it. But I think if we follow these principles, we'll be 
staking out a responsible position, which will permit us to continue to 
grow economically and do our part in the world. After all, we have only 
4 percent of the world's population, but we account for 20 percent of 
the greenhouse gas emissions, which you would expect since we have 
slightly over 20 percent of the world's output.

Budget Agreement

    Q. Mr. President, how seriously are you considering using a line 
item veto to kill some provisions of the budget you'll sign into law 
tomorrow?

[[Page 1042]]

    The President. Well, I asked Mr. Bowles to--once we got a budget 
agreement and it passed--to institute an intensive process to review 
both the spending and the tax bills to see if there were any items that 
would be appropriate for the line item veto. And I have not yet received 
the results of that review.
    I support the line item veto; I did all along. And I think if we 
have it, it ought to be used--I believe that it ought to be used 
somewhat sparingly. And my experience as Governor was that once I used 
it a few times, I didn't have to--I didn't need to use it very much 
anymore. And that's what I would hope would happen.
    We'll just see--you probably know more about the likely targets for 
it than I do at this point. I was interested in the big-picture items in 
the budget. We got virtually 100 percent of what I sought, and I'm 
elated with the budget. I think it's good for America. I think it will 
keep the economy growing, and I think it's a responsible thing to do. So 
whatever I do on that shouldn't be in any way detracting from the 
terrific job that the Congress did on it.

United Parcel Service Strike

    Q. Mr. President, one question on UPS. The standards for 
Presidential intervention are relatively high. Are you considering doing 
anything else to intervene to bring an end to the strike?
    The President. On UPS?
    Q. Yes, UPS.
    The President. Well, first we urged the Federal mediator, and we got 
that. And we got--obviously, it didn't work. I still think the parties 
ought to go back to the table. UPS is a very important company to our 
country, and there are a lot of employees there and I hope they go back 
to the table. But at this time, I don't think any further action by me 
is appropriate.

Note: The President spoke at 10:25 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.