http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/business/energy-environment/large-companies-prepared-to-pay-price-on-carbon.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Faced with the inevitable, Big Oil is preparing to move forward on the issue of carbon emissions. The Koch brothers are refusing to budge from their anti-science position. These different stands will pit pro-business establishment Republicans against we-don't-listen-to-anyone-but-ourselves Tea Party Republicans."More than two dozen of the nation's biggest corporations, including the five major oil companies, are planning their future growth on the expectation that the government will force them to pay a price for carbon pollution as a way to control global warming.
The development is a striking departure from conservative orthodoxy and a reflection of growing divisions between the Republican Party and its business supporters...
...Supporters and opponents of action to fight global warming say the development is significant because businesses that chart a financial course to make money in a carbon-constrained future could be more inclined to support policies that address climate change.
But unlike the five big oil companies--ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, BP and Shell, all major contributors to the Republican party, Koch Industries, a conglomerate that has played a major role in pushing Republicans away from action on climate change, is ramping up an already-aggressive campaign against climate policy--specifically against any tax or price on carbon...
...The divide, between conservative groups that are fighting against government regulation and oil companies that are planning for it as a practical business decision, echoes a deeper rift in the party, as business-friendly establishment Republicans clash with the Tea Party...
...Tom Carnac, North American president of (Carbon Disclosure Project) said 'Companies see that the trend is inevitable. What you see here is a hardening of that understanding.'...
...During the 2012 election every Republican presidential candidate but one, Jon Huntsman, questioned or denied the science of climate change...
...Mainstream economists have long agreed that putting a price on carbon pollution is the most effective way to fight global warming. The idea is fairly simple: if industry must pay to spew the carbon pollution that scientists say is the chief cause of global warming, the costs will be passed on to consumers in higher prices for gasoline and electricity. Those high prices are expected to drive the market away from fossil fuels like oil and coal, and toward low-carbon renewable sources of energy.
Past efforts to enact a carbon price in Washington have failed largely because powerful fossil-fuel groups financed campaigns against lawmakers who supported a carbon tax...
...In 2009, President Obama urged House Democrats to vote for a cap-and-trade bill that would have required companies whose carbon-dioxide emissions exceeded set levels to buy emissions rights from those who emitted less. The next year, Tea Party groups spent millions to successfully unseat members who voted for the bill...
...A decade ago, (ExxonMobil) was known for contributing to research organizations that questioned the science of climate change...Today, ExxonMobil openly acknowledges that carbon pollution from fossil fuels contributes to climate change....
...'ExxonMobil and many other large companies understand that climate change poses a direct economic threat to their businesses,' said Dan Weiss, director for climate policy at the Center for American Progress...'They need to convince their political allies to act before it's too late.'
Koch Industries maintains ties to the Tea Party group Americans for Prosperity, which last year campaigned against Republicans who acknowledged the science of climate change. The company also contributes money to the American Energy Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group that...says it has spent about $1.2 million in ads and campaign activities attacking candidates who it says support a carbon price.
Robert Murphy, (of) the American Energy Alliance, said his group was not concerned that it had taken a different position from the major oil companies. 'We're not taking marching orders from Big Oil,' he said."
This should be an interesting fight, and one that has been a long time coming.
No comments:
Post a Comment