On the one hand, Bush and the Republicans say we're helpless to do anything about global warming until China and India act.

On the other hand, the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. are funneling billions in taxpayer dollars to huge corporations (think Halliburton and Bechtel) to help them construct carbon-intensive hard infrastructure projects:

According to their own reports, the two agencies approved projects in recent years that annually emitted more than 125 million metric tons of CO2 -- the equivalent of putting 31.3 million new cars on the road or increasing U.S. carbon emissions by 2%, according to the Energy Department.

So you see, it's not just that the U.S. government is using the developing world as an obscene excuse not to act. Not just that it's failing to help fund carbon reductions in the developing world. The U.S. government is actively funding massive increases in carbon emissions in those countries.

Grr.