Playing It Cool.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Environment: What if the targets of the Kyoto treaty could be reached or exceeded, without resorting to Kyoto's economy-strangling restrictions? Not good enough, says the United Nations.

At last week's Asia-Pacific security conference in Laos, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick announced that the U.S., India, Australia, China, Japan and South Korea have agreed to reduce greenhouses gases using technology.

The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate contrasts sharply with the Kyoto pact. That treaty, which the Senate and the Bush administration rejected, seeks to lower emissions by slashing energy use.

In a world where scientific advances are coming faster every day, it's foolish not to use technology to protect the environment and to rely instead on the command-and-control elements of Kyoto.

While we prefer a cleaner world to a dirtier one, we remain skeptical that recent warming is due mainly to humans. And we are particularly concerned about solutions such as the Kyoto accord -- an economy and job killer if there ever was one.

The Energy Information Agency has estimated that complying with Kyoto would cost the U.S. economy $225 billion to $400 billion and each U.S. household up to $2,700 a year. It would also put from 1.1 million to 4.9 million of Americans out of work.

And remember: These projections were made during the Clinton years, not by a Republican White House. ...