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.)