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CEOs from DuPont, Alcoa, General Electric, Duke Energy and six other corporations joined two large environmental groups yesterday in urging Congress to pass global warming legislation that curbs greenhouse gas emissions over the next 50 years.
The U.S. Climate Action Partnership is calling for emissions reductions from all economic sectors, including power plants, buildings and transportation. Echoing the warnings of many top scientists, the group suggests U.S. emissions should be lowered to between 60 percent and 80 percent of today's levels by 2050.
"The science of climate warming is clear," Jim Rogers, chairman and CEO of Duke, told reporters at the National Press Club. "We must act now, and we also must be prepared for a sustained, intense effort over many future decades."
The two environmental groups — the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense — also endorsed the partnership's recommendations and urged lawmakers to push President Bush to sign or veto climate legislation.
"We are asking Congress to take action now, not to wait for the next administration, not to wait for the presidential debates," said Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense.
Principles spelled out by the partnership center around a cap-and-trade system phased in over several decades. The group endorses emission offsets that allow industries to meet their requirements by funding projects that cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Companies that have already made investments in low-carbon technologies should benefit from an emission allowance allocation system. And the group backed limits on the price of greenhouse gas emissions so long as it is high enough not to discourage investments in new energy technologies, including capture and storage of carbon dioxide.
Aware of the nationwide boom in new coal plant construction, the report suggests policies that "strongly discourage" further construction of plants that cannot easily capture their carbon dioxide emissions for geologic sequestration. Regardless of how allowances are allocated, "they should not be allocated to such new sources," the report says.
Utility executives from PNM Resources and Duke conceded those recommendations would affect most proposed coal-fired power plants that are being planned without such technologies. Said Rogers, "We believe the construction of new plants should occur in a manner that would allow them to capture and store CO2 when the conditions exist to support its implementation."
Reactions from Hill, White House
The partnership unveiled its report on the eve of President Bush's State of the Union address and as lawmakers ready to examine a number of different legislative options, including cap-and-trade programs for greenhouse gas emissions.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) welcomed the new coalition's efforts as she prepares to open hearings on global warming Jan. 30.
"There are just a few moments in history when all sides come together for the common good," Boxer said in a statement. "Such a moment has arrived with the agreement by these companies and organizations to work together to call for action to avoid a global warming crisis."
Added Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the chairman of the Environment and Public Works' Clean Air Subcommittee, "Carbon emissions are going to be regulated. It's not a question of 'if. It's a question of 'when.'"
At the White House, reporters questioned Bush's spokesman on whether the president would be open to meeting with the new coalition. "Well, again, we will certainly be here to see what they have to say and to propose," spokesman Tony Snow said. "And at the same time, the president's proposals, I think, address in a comprehensive and realistic way concerns about greenhouse emissions, and also their primary sources."
As he did last week, Snow also explained there would be no mention during Bush's speech tonight of a change in position against a binding, economy-wide carbon cap. "I'm not going to go and announce to you what the president's proposal is, but it's worth saying that the president has always believed, when it comes to climate change, that the best way to achieve reductions is through innovation and to figure out ways to come up with energy sources that are going to meet our economy's constant demand for energy," Snow said.
No legislative preference
Members of the new partnership would not state a preference for any one specific legislative approach on Capitol Hill — at least not when pressed about it during a press conference. "We don't really endorse any specific piece of legislation," said Jeffrey Immlet, chairman and CEO of GE. "We've put forward a catalyst, if you will, and now it can take any form it can take as it works its way into the legislative process."
Asked after the session if the group would take a more active role as lawmakers begin to markup legislation, WRI President Jonathan Lash said, "The short answer is I don't know. We're going to try to work together. We're going to try to influence all of the bills. I don't know whether there will come a time when we coalesce around one vehicle, certainly not yet."
Frances Beinecke, president of NRDC, said her group would speak up in support of the most stringent of the ideas put forth in the report. "This is a coming together on a common set of principles and a framework," she said. "We will continue to be the strong advocates that we are for global warming legislation. That's where we will be. There's a range here, and the higher end of the range is very consistent with what NRDC has said publicly is the goal in all of our dealings."
Critics of the effort
At the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, spokesman Charles Territo said his group did not receive an invitation to team up on the partnership. "I don't know if we'd join, but I'm sure we'd listen," he said.
Territo stated that U.S. automakers are addressing climate change by reducing emissions at their plants and investing millions of dollars every year in different types of fuel-efficient technologies.
Another major industry group left out of the partnership is the National Mining Association. The group's president and CEO, Kraig Naasz, cautioned that the ideas being advanced for a new climate policy could end up causing economic and energy problems.
Among other things, Naasz said the group's recommendations set up an arbitrary definition of carbon capture and storage that penalizes modern and more carbon efficient power plants.
"This approach completely ignores the economic hardship that would be imposed on many residential and industrial consumers and turns a blind eye to both the technological and regional constraints on carbon sequestration," Naasz said. "Further, the proposal will have the perverse effect of encouraging continued use of older facilities and hindering the development of more modern electric power generation."
Divisions among partners
Members of the partnership do not agree on all points.
For example, Duke's Rogers highlighted the report's recommendation of nuclear power as a potential solution to global warming. "I think it's important that we mention nuclear power, that nuclear power is one of the technologies we have today. I think it's significant to this document that nuclear power is one of the current technologies that's available. That's all we say."
But NRDC's Beinecke said her group doesn't endorse the technology. "It's not a position that NRDC has," she said, citing concerns about safety, waste and proliferation. "There's lots of problems with nukes. These issues are not going away and they need to be wrestled with."
In other areas, the group may be willing to look past other disputes, including a pending Supreme Court case over power plant enforcement that pits Duke against Environmental Defense.
Said Rogers, "I think actually it says something important to our belief about how important we think this issue is because we can put those other fights behind us and focus on going forward," he said.
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