Environmental Law

Some Companies Push for American Action On Global Warming

By Dennis Pfaff and Kevin Livingston, Editors

Even during a period of scary economic headlines, some experts see efforts to control climate change through market mechanisms as a green light at the end of a dark tunnel.

The green lobbying group Environmental Defense Action Fund has enlisted top officials from manufacturing companies Deere & Co. and Eaton Corp. to appear in commercials touting the benefits of a national limit on emissions, as Congress nears a debate on the Lieberman-Warner bill that would establish a cap and trade system.

In a separate development, executives of Lehman Brothers, a major Wall Street firm, suggested that moves underway in the United States and elsewhere are likely to boost the carbon market, according to a Reuters report.

According to Reuters, Theodore Roosevelt, the chairman of Lehman’s told reporters at a news conference in Tokyo that he was “fairly confident” the United States would pass “substantial climate change legislation” no later than 2010. The country’s involvement would then open “the possibility of a serious dialogue” with Asian countries on how to approach the problem. Another Lehman official quoted by the news service noted exchanges in Asia have recently indicated they want to get into carbon trading.

The report came on the same day Lehman found itself embroiled in the continuing Wall Street jitters over the stability of financial firms. The New York Times reported the firm’s stock fell 20 percent by the end of the day Monday. On Tuesday, the company reported a first-quarter net income of $489 million, a 57 percent drop compared to last year's first quarter.

Announcement of the new environmentalist-industrialist ad campaign comes as discussion over the economic impact of addressing climate change heats up in advance of the anticipated June debate in the Senate over the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. Last week, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Environmental Protection Agency released separate reports assessing the economic price tag from the legislation, sparking a spirited debate (see previous story). The legislation is named for its primary sponsors, Sens. Joseph Lieberman, an independent of Connecticut, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican.

In a statement, the Environmental Defense Action Fund, which is the non-tax-exempt lobbying arm of the Environmental Defense Fund, said that the industrial executives believe that “solving climate change is an opportunity to jumpstart the U.S. economy" and that quick action by Congress means "America can own the energy technologies that will power" the century.

"Amid a heated national debate over job losses, the business leaders point to the job-creating power of a national cap on global warming pollution,” the statement said.

The ads feature Chief Executive Officer Robert Lane of Deere, which is a major manufacturer of farming equipment and fellow CEO Alexander Cutler of Eaton, a company that produces devices that can improve the energy efficiency of buildings.

(Photograph of Sen. Joseph Lieberman via Wikipedia)

Full post as published by Climate Law Update on March 18, 2008 (boomark / email).