In a stunningly unlikely turn of events big corporations are trying to make the Bush administration do something about global warming. That’s right in an administration made of of ex big industry insiders this may have come as quite a shock to the embattled president. But pinch my bloomers, its true.

From here.

Major corporations and environmental groups on Friday announced what they called an “unprecedented alliance” to push for quicker action against global warming — urging lawmakers to pass mandatory curbs on carbon emissions, in contrast to President Bush’s voluntary approach.

In a statement, the 10 U.S.-based companies and four environmental groups called for mandatory reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, including those from power plants, transportation and buildings.

Called the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, the group includes aluminum giant Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar, DuPont, General Electric, Lehman Brothers and four utilities with a big stake in climate policy: Duke Energy, FPL Group, PG&E and PNM Resources. (MSNBC.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and GE’s NBC Universal unit.) The environmental partners are Environmental Defense, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the World Resources Institute.

While its not Exxon beating down the door of the white house to demand a system for carbon regulation, there are some fairly large movers and shakers in the energy world on that list. The groups is calling for a “cap and trade” system. This would “cap” the amount of carbon emissions currently allowed. Companies that produced less than this cap would be able to “trade” the extra emission tags for money to the dirty companies. If the government lowers the cap each year this allows market forces to favor the cleaner companies and provides an economic incentive for dirty companies to clean up their act (or pay a lot of money buying tags from someone else.)

The article goes on to say.

“There must be a reasoned and serious debate about the solutions,” the group stated. “But debate cannot substitute for action. We hope that the consensus we have reached through our unique partnership provides further impetus toward the creation of sensible and effective policies to address global climate change.”

Members of the group, which had been in talks over the last year, said company CEOs would offer more details at a National Press Club event on Monday, a day before Bush’s State of the Union speech in which the president is expected to address climate change.

Members said they had agreed on a “shared goal of slowing, stopping and reversing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions over the shortest period of time reasonably achievable.”

It’s about time big business started throwing their economic muscle around for something that will truly make their customers happy.

For more information on how these systems work try here and here. Cap and trade systems have been vital in solving a lot of the acid rain problems in this country. It can work for other pollutions. We will have to stay tuned to the presidents state of the union speech on Tuesday to see if this sort of pressure leads to any new announcements. We will all then have to keep paying attention to see if the president who famously stated we are “addicted to oil” will do anything to back up his words with action. His track record for making grandiose statements and then not following up on any of them with policy speaks for itself.