CEO's Testify for Limits on Greenhouse Gases

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works heard testimony today from Chief Executive Officers of some of the largest companies in the United States in support of limits on emissions of greenhouse gases.

During a hearing on the US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) report, executives from BP America, DuPont and PG&E, California's largest utility company, lent their support to proposed emissions limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are being blamed for global warming. The majority party chair of the committee, California Senator Barbara Boxer, thanked the executives present at the hearing for their collective "call for Action" on global warming, according to the Committee's press release.

DuPont, BP, and PG&E are only a few of the ten corporations that have come together with four environmental groups to form the USCAP, a group determined to "call on the federal government to quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions," as written on the USCAP website. Other corporations include Alcoa, Duke Energy, GE, and Caterpillar. The environmental groups involved in the USCAP are Environmental Defense, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the World Resources Institute and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

Peter Darbee of PG&E said, "We share a view that climate change is the most pressing environmental issue of our time." He went on to add that "our economy is the world's locomotive...and it's critical to get that engine pulling in the right direction on climate change."

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that most of the opposition came from Republican Senators who accuse the corporations involved of pushing for laws that will benefit their own interests. Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, the minority head of the Senate committee, commented that the companies are "climate profiteers... coming out of the woodwork to endorse climate proposals in hopes of forcing consumers to buy their products or be penalized."

Opponents of the USCAP feel that the companies involved are pushing for a cap and trade system on emissions because the companies have invested in low-emissions technology that stands to benefit from emissions regulations. However, Duke Energy's Chairman reported that his company is the third largest user of coal, which is not among the clean technologies that critics say stand to benefit from emissions limits. And yet, Duke is calling for limits on emissions, so the argument falls a bit flat.

Boxer responded to the Republican critics, saying that "it's quite unfair to cast aspersions on people who actually may have come to a decision that there's a need for corporate responsibility." Darbee added to the arguments, noting that California has stabilized its energy use over the last thirty years based on existing technology, whereas the rest of the nation's energy consumption has risen by 50 percent. He also referenced a recent study that shows that total energy consumption across the globe could be halved with energy efficiency alone.