Bush Turnaround on Climate Change?

The British newspaper The Guardian is reporting here that President Bush is “preparing to make a historic shift in his position on global warming” in his state of the union speech. This would not surprise me–leaders of green NGOS, some of them quite well-connected, and the CEO of a well-known Fortune 500 company have told me in the last month or so that they don’t expect the president to stand in the way of congressional action to cap carbon emissions.

Another interesting development on the climate-change, reported last week in The Wall Street Journal, is that Exxon Mobil has cut off funding to groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute that have been climate skeptics, to put in mildly. Now comes word, again from a British newspaper, The Independent, that Exxon Mobil met recently with several environmental groups and investor groups, including the Worldwatch Institute, to discuss its response to global warming. Again, I’d heard similar things (but couldn’t report them) in the last few weeks from environmental leaders.

Thanks to Peter Kinder of KLD Research for steering me to the Guardian story, and thanks to those of you who responded to my email yesterday about this blog and about my new duties at Fortune, where I will be focusing on the environmental and social impact of business. And thanks to our new managing editor Andy Serwer for giving me the green light (pun intended) to pursue my passions!