This seems to be a "feel good" story. I hope it is, ------ but why do I feel cynical

Greenie in charge of the greenbackEnvironmentalists have welcomed George W.Bush's choice of financier Henry Paulson as Treasury Secretary, writes Sarah Baxter
June 09, 2006

This seems to be a "feel good" story. I hope it is, ------ but why do I feel cynical

FOR greens used to bashing US President George W.Bush, it is a puzzle. Last week, the hater of the Kyoto treaty and former oilman gave the key job of Treasury Secretary to one of the most environmentally friendly multi-millionaires on the planet.

Henry "Hank" Paulson is a leading name on Wall Street, where he accumulated pound stg. 370million as chairman and chief executive of investment bank Goldman Sachs. But he is also known as an ardent advocate of nature conservation and the prevention of global warming.
"He's way too green for some folk," a former Bush administration official said.
Environmentalists are cheering over his nomination. "It's very encouraging to have somebody at that level in the financial world who understands that promoting the economy and the environment go hand in hand," said Dave Willett of the Sierra Club, a leading conservation group.

Placing an avid green in charge of the mighty greenback is a stretch for Bush, but support for the environment is no longer confined to tree-huggers or Al Gore, the Cannes Film Festival darling whose documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, has Democrats buzzing about a 2008 presidential run.

Some of the toughest neoconservative hawks in the war on terror, such as James Woolsey, the former CIA chief, and General Brent Scowcroft, a veteran of right-wing realpolitik, have become alarmed by the prospect of climate change. They also oppose the financial and political muscle that oil hands to the US's enemies in the Middle East. Bush signalled that he was shifting his position during his State of the Union speech in January, when he called for the production of ethanol for cars, "not just from corn but from wood chips, stalks or switch grass".

The comedians had a field day, but Paulson's appointment is a sign that American greens are going mainstream. The 60-year-old is chairman of the Nature Conservancy, the world's wealthiest environmental group, which supports the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and last year donated $70million in Goldman Sachs stock to the cause.

Paulson is expected to bring his passion for the subject to the Bush administration's cabinet table. "He is unhesitant in expressing his opinion when he thinks it is the right thing to do," said Steve McCormick, president of the Nature Conservancy. "I'm sure that if there's an opportunity for Hank to provide his point of view on this issue, he will take advantage of it."
Raised as a Christian Scientist on a farm in Illinois, the teetotal Paulson dreamed of becoming a forest or park ranger as a boy.

He and his wife, Wendy, an environmental education teacher who went to college with Hillary Clinton, have raised a menagerie of flying squirrels, raccoons, lizards, snakes, mice, frogs, cats, dogs and a tarantula on a site that used to be part of his parents' farm. On his way to work in New York, Paulson would often stop off at Central Park for a spot of birdwatching and invited falconers to show off birds of prey to office staff.

He had to be wooed into accepting the Treasury post and commentators have hailed his nomination as an unexpected outbreak of competence on Mr Bush's part. "They're so desperate they're scraping the top of the barrel," is one of the jokes doing the rounds about his nomination, which still has to be confirmed by the Senate.

Bush chose Paulson for the job because of his sound reputation on Wall Street, his strong support for tax cuts and free trade, and his soothing belief that economic growth -- which hit a cracking pace of 5.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year -- will help to solve the yawning US budget deficit. There are not expected to be any sudden changes of heart about drilling for oil in Alaska, the signing of the Kyoto treaty or other touchstone environmental issues.

Bush has dropped his outright scepticism about the existence of global warming, but still doubts whether it is a man-made phenomenon. He said recently that he regretted the hostile anti-green tone he struck during his first term as President.
Instead of simply opposing the Kyoto treaty on global warming as "a lousy deal for America", the President reflected: "I guess I should have started differently ... and said we will invest in new technologies that will enable us to use fossil fuels in a much wiser way." Christie Whitman, a Republican who had an unhappy time as head of the Environmental Protection Agency in Bush's first term, believes that Paulson's appointment will nudge policy along.

"One of the biggest raps against some environmental proposals is that they are not economically sound," she said. "One of the things that his kind of advocacy can do is to put a lie to that."
A few lone conservative voices, who believed that a Bush government of Texas oilmen would have no time for green nonsense, are urging senators to reject Paulson's nomination.

"You do not want someone serving as a cabinet officer who has a habit of indulging his environmental hobby at the expense of his financial responsibilities," said Tom Borelli of the Free Enterprise Action Fund. Yet Paulson has just as fearsome a reputation for ruthlessness, which should serve him well. On fishing trips, colleagues recall how he would not stop until he had reeled in the best catch of the day. In his time at Goldman Sachs he bagged big clients with the same tenacity. "He loved going after the big fish," said Robert Hurst, his former boss.
Persuading Bush to go green could be his greatest catch yet.
The Sunday Times