Carbon Tax, Cap & Scam Ping - (POGW)
Posted on 07/25/2009 5:09:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens’s last minute opposition to the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, announced just prior to the House of Representatives’ vote, was reminiscent of Senator John Kerry’s infamous statement “I voted for it before I voted against it.”
While Kerry’s embarrassing comment only hurt his presidential prospects, Owens’s promotion of global warming legislation has far-reaching consequences: the potential to cause irreparable harm to his company, customers, employees and our economy.
After years of supporting a national law to limit carbon dioxide emissions through participation in the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) – a lobbying coalition pushing cap-and-trade legislation – Owens realized the final bill would harm his company. According to Energy & Environment News, the day before the House vote, Owens wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), saying, “We cannot endorse this bill in its current form.”
Owens’s flip-flop serves as a case study of the ignorance and arrogance that plagues many CEOs. Too many chief executives exaggerate their political influence only to discover that the “seat at the table” rationale for supporting regulation greatly overstates their ability to steer it.
CEOs such as Owens fail to comprehend the nature and motivations of left-wing politicians and their advocacy group allies. Although Owens may understand how to manage the complexities of a multinational heavy equipment company, when it comes to public policy, he turns into a useful idiot for the liberal agenda.
Owens’s comments at the launch of USCAP in 2007 underscored his inflated hopes for cap-and-trade. At that time, he said, "If we go to the sidelines and leave all of this to partisan politics, the stronger environmental groups will drive legislation which is incompatible with policies we need to support manufacturing in the global marketplace." He also added, “National reduction targets would avert a ‘patchwork’ of potentially costly and conflicting state regulations that could hurt U.S. manufacturers amid growing competition for global sales.”
The bill passed by the House fell far short of Owens’s expectations. Yes, the legislation would eliminate the patchwork of state laws but it also would decimate the competiveness of the U.S. manufacturing base – one of Owens’ major concerns. Owens, a member of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, warned the president in May that the U.S. would be at a competitive disadvantage if India and China failed to agree to reduce emissions. Owens said, “I think if we move unilaterally as the United States with a significant cap and trade program that drives up the cost of carbon here significantly, and our international competitors, the countries don't move with us, it's going to create competitive problems …for the manufacturing industry in this country.”
It seems Owens suddenly realized the law he was pushing would indeed backfire on our manufacturing industries and our economy.
Importantly, India and China have consistently refused to commit to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. At the G8 meeting held earlier this month, China and India rejected an offer to join the commitment to reduce world emissions.
More recently, during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s first trip to India, that country soundly rejected a commitment to reducing fossil fuel emissions. Jairam Rajesh, India’s environment minister, said, “We are simply not in a position to take on legally binding emissions [reduction] targets.”
Regarding international relations, the Waxman-Markey bill could also initiate a trade war that could be very damaging to Caterpillar. If a provision calling for a tariff on imports from countries that don’t agree to limit carbon dioxide emissions became law, China could retaliate against Caterpillar’s significant business interests in that country.
Owens’s failure to recognize the negative consequences of cap-and-trade is most likely not from a lack of aptitude – after all, he has a Ph.D. in economics. Instead, it may be derived from political naiveté and sheer stubborn adherence to a course of action that just “feels” right while ignoring the inherent risks.
In fact, Owens admitted at Caterpillar’s shareholder meeting in 2007 that he had not conducted a cost-benefit analysis on the impact of cap-and-trade on his company.
Even more disturbing was Owens’s response to my question at this year’s annual meeting. I asked him how shareholders could hold him accountable for contributing to a cap-and-trade regulatory avalanche that he could not control and which might prove harmful to shareholder’s interests. Owens arrogantly responded, “You can sell your stock.”
CEOs such as Owens pose a unique test to those of us who value limited government and liberty. It’s very hard to remove an entrenched CEO and hold him accountable for his decisions.
But difficulty should not stand in the way of shareholders, suppliers and customers joining together to challenge Owens and others like him for their efforts to dig a cap-and-trade hole for America
Carbon Tax, Cap & Scam Ping - (POGW)
Another serious news story ignored by the national news media.
Cap and Trade will offer enormous opportunities for graft, corruption, and under the table deals. The kind of thing which could shackle the United States and everybody in it with a whole new structure of debt and disincentive.
Owens supported Cap and trade becuase it would avoid patchy state laws.....
but that was in 2007 (with less Democrats in Congress and Bush in office)...even up to his reversal he had been softening his stand....
Zero is kiking his company...he hates coal(need CAT equipment to get it), Cap and Trade, and the proposed higher TAX on international profits
Young German to a friend in 1936:
“Let’s join the Nazis so we can guide them to kinder, gentler policies...”
hh
That’s another reason many of don’t like it because most of us here are honest people. The only people this is going to help are crooks and foreign competition.
Or
1933: "Good thing the Blue Dog Nazis are pushing back on Hitler's 'health purification' program, as the conservatives left in the Reichstag don't have enough moderates in their party for a majority."
At least he has guts
This idiot still doesn't get it.....
.....You can't just do a little dance with the DEVIL.
These corporate CEO's who want to promote ANY of this global warming legislation just enough to put their company is some sort of good position in the market do nothing but hurt themselves.
I'm sure he thinks AGW legislation will make their Solar Turbine line sell like hotcakes. But it kills their bread and butter.....diesel burning earth movers. In the little gas turbine market, they have a lot of equal competition.
GE is doing the same thing. But in the end, it will kill their steam turbine business.
In the end, this type of legislation will kill nearly EVERY business because the economy will die and nobody will be buying anything they don't have to buy.
These CEO's need to just do the right thing and oppose AGW legislation because it is the right thing to do, even if it doesn't give them some perceived advantage.
When we hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope.
He supported it because he thought his company would make big bucks because coal would be punished. He was banking on the EPA to help his company by considering most of his products to fall under the de minimis standards for cap and trade.
It didn’t happen.
Isn’t this the same guy who said back in Feb. that the Stimulus money would allow him to rehire laid off employees?
I believe so.
Bet they are still waiting 6 months later.
NINOs is more like it. If your historical analogy were correct then those folks would be swimming in the Anacostia.
No, This is the guy who said a good stimulus bill would create jobs. He did not say O’s was a good stimulus bill. O went to imply that his stimulus would create jobs. he got used.
wrong.
Cats second biggest customers are the coal campanies(behind oil and gas)very high profit margins machines are sold to coal mining companies
There’s an even bigger market for peaking power.
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