There was a lot going on during the negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol. The United States especially had a tough time agreeing with everything listed. The Bush Sr. Administration did not like a certain part of the protocol, they negotiated with other countries to try and change that said part. But many knew that these negotiations would amount to nothing and this is one of the main reasons the Bush Sr. Administration failed to agree with the protocol at first.
Another reason for the United States not signing the Protocol was the Bush Sr. administration’s interest in foreign oil and gas. The administration did not want to use the U.S. current oil reserve and was actively seeking new ways to gain oil and gas. With this preoccupation at hand, the U.S. did not have time to further negotiate Kyoto Protocol to fit their liking. With no new negotiations taking place, the U.S. was not going to ratify the protocol and be forced to follow these new precautions that other countries were trying to take.
The last reason for the U.S. taking so long was that Bush Sr. plain out did not like the Kyoto Protocol. He did not believe that global warming was becoming an issue and if it was that the U.S. needed to change the way it was being run to help stop it. He also believed that this Protocol was just a way for countries to try and get the U.S. to slow its growth. He did not want the U.S. to stop being a superpower and wanted to continue building up its firepower and economy. If the U.S. signed this protocol he believed it would hinder the growth and open a window for a new country to take power.
I believe the U.S. does not want to make an agreement over climate change because we do not trust other countries to follow through with it. The U.S. does not want to go through all this trouble to try and lower CO2 emissions and find better ways to produce energy if other countries will not agree to do it as well. I think they believe that cutting our emissions would not be enough and would be pointless if other countries were not doing it as well. I also believe that another reason could be that the U.S. just does not care. The U.S. has been built on growing and finding ways to expand. The U.S. does not want to stop and try to rethink its energy to try and cut emissions and risk slowing the growth of the country. If we spend all this effort trying to cut emissions and find cleaner ways to produce energy it may slow or even stop our growth as a country. That then might lead to a roadblock that we can not figure out how to get past and the U.S. may no longer be a first-world country after.
Will Wright 