If the Cap Fits: Why our CEOs are warming to Kyoto.

Wall Street Journal ^ | 1/26/07 | Kimberly Strassel

[Winged Hussar]

Democrats want to flog the global warming theme through 2008 and they'll take what help they can get, even if it means cozying up to executives whose goal is to enrich their firms. Right now, the corporate giants calling for a mandatory carbon cap serve too useful a political purpose for anyone to delve into their baser motives.

The Climate Action Partnership, a group of 10 major companies that made headlines this week with its call for a national limit on carbon dioxide emissions, would surely feign shock at such an accusation. After all, their plea was carefully timed to coincide with President Bush's State of the Union capitulation on global warming, and it had the desired PR effect. The media dutifully declared that "even" business now recognized the climate threat. Sen. Barbara Boxer, who begins marathon hearings on warming next week, lauded the corporate angels for thinking of the "common good."

...DuPont has been plunging into biofuels, the use of which would soar under a cap. Somebody has to cobble together all these complex trading deals, so say hello to Lehman Brothers. ...GE makes all the solar equipment and wind turbines (at $2 million a pop) that utilities would have to buy under a climate regime. GE's revenue from environmental products long ago passed the $10 billion mark, and it doesn't take much "ecomagination" to see why Mr. Immelt is leading the pack of climate profiteers.

[Winged Hussar]

Al Gore is doubtlessly raking in plenty of "green" from "Earth in the Balance" and his speaking tours. Someone should remind Mr. Gore (and Nancy Pelosi) that Real Democrats do not destroy working people's jobs while running up their heating, air conditioning, and transportation costs to enrich big corporations.

Even better, we should remind the Democratic base of this as we go into the 2008 elections, so union members and other traditional (moderate/conservative Democrats who actually work for a living) will realize that their own so-called leaders are doing to them what they keep accusing Republicans of doing: enriching big business at the expense of the working person. If done properly, it will result in an electoral disaster for the Democratic Left.

More about the Kyoto Treaty SCAM at http://www.stentorian.com/kyoto

[rellimpank]

----related thread and comments--


--http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1774330/posts

[NormsRevenge]

ssshhhh nopw. ;-)

.. wouldn't want to out the profit at the expense of others angle to this wealth transfer scheme... and who will be asked to pay for it,, as usual.

[Winged Hussar]

I did a search on "Kyoto" before posting this, didn't see the previous version of the article. Apologies for the duplicate.

[rellimpank]

--no need to apologize--I think it deserves a repost--corporate groups have been getting into bed with big government to feather their nest since the days of Teddy Roosevelt, by the way.

-an interesting tome on the history of this subject is The Triumph of Capitalism by one Gabriel Kolko--

[RS]

"...will realize that their own so-called leaders are doing to them what they keep accusing Republicans of doing: enriching big business at the expense of the working person."

... and just how is this supposed to convince Democrats to allow Republicans to make gains ?

Union workers KNOW that their leadership has been enriching themselves on their sweat pretty much since unions began -
If their leaders tell them that the smokestack scrubbers and windmill maker jobs will be union, they will go for it.

[Winged Hussar]

Re: "If their leaders tell them that the smokestack scrubbers and windmill maker jobs will be union, they will go for it."

Our job is to show them why the smokestack scrubbers and windmills will be made in China, by Chinese workers, while the American workers whose jobs are destroyed by greenhouse gas regulations will be pushing burgers and fries at fast food places.

[bmwcyle]

I suggest we send these lefties to all the other planets in our solar system to stop the warming of those first.

[RS]

"Our job is to show them why the smokestack scrubbers and windmills will be made in China, by Chinese workers, while the American workers whose jobs are destroyed by greenhouse gas regulations will be pushing burgers and fries at fast food places."

Uh ... Won't they still be running the power plants AND installing and maintaining the new emmisions equipment, solar power arrays on houses and windmills ?

Are you under the impression that our electricity requirements will go down as a result of anything to do with Kyoto ?
... Or that China will begin shipping us electricity ?

[lepton]

bookmark bump

[Riverman94610]

The global warming"fix"won't hurt these moguls bottom line in the least.
They just will end up passing any regulatory and"cleanup costs"on to the consumer.