More Hot Air?
On Tuesday, a group of nearly 100 global corporations came out in support of international greenhouse gas regulations. The Global Roundtable on Climate Change stated, “Failing to act now would lead to far higher economic and environmental costs and greater risk of irreversible impacts.” Therefore, the group urges world leaders to set “scientifically informed” binding limits on emissions of greenhouse gases by 2012.
Interestingly enough, this global cabal Includes companies like Citigroup, Ford Motor Company, and Toyota. Unfortunately, while these companies are asking for regulation by 2012, they are missing opportunities today to shift their business practices and start immediately and dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Citi could agree to not fund TXU, thereby keeping 78 million additional tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere. And by leading the industry to build a fleet of cars that get 40mpg, Ford could help reduce auto industry emissions by 106 million tons of CO2 per year. And Toyota (and other automakers) could pull out of the lawsuit that is questioning the state of California’s right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
What are they waiting for?
3 Responses to “More Hot Air?”
Leave a Reply
All comments offered in the spirit of civil conversation are welcome! Commercial spam, obscenity and other rude behavior are not, and will be removed. Valid email addresses are required. (RAN respects your privacy; we will not use, lend, or sell your email address for any reason.)
February 22nd, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Brilliant post Sarah. I find it ironic that the companies are asking for regulation when they could be doing things on their own right now that wouldn’t really make the regulation necessary. Its like a kid asking to be disciplined while spray -painting the wall of their room or getting caught with their hands deep in the cookie jar. Are they bating the federal gov’t?
February 23rd, 2007 at 11:31 am
They want a level playing field Japhet.
February 23rd, 2007 at 6:53 pm
True enough. But the “field” they want leveled doesn’t take in to consideration the impacts on the environment. The very problem is that all they want, in reality, is fair competition that keeps them from being out-competed by their competitor. They’re trying to do too many contradictory things – shaking our hands and looking us in the eye, while going behind our backs with lawsuits.
Whats funny here is that TXU is operating in a deregulated market, so there is no real competition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation_of_the_Texas_electricity_market
Checkout what this local has to say about what went on behind closed doors in the state legislature when the conversation delved a little deeper into deregulation and TXU:
http://www.texasmonthly.com/community/blog/paulburka/2007/02/everyone-loves-good-villain.php