http://www.marcgunther.com/2008/05/31/lieberman-warner-going-nowhere/ This blog is about the impact of business on society. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:08:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.marcgunther.com/2008/05/31/lieberman-warner-going-nowhere/comment-page-1/#comment-55092 Duke Energy on Climate Credits « World Business Academy Blog Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:38:38 +0000 http://www.marcgunther.com/?p=372#comment-55092 [...] Energy on Climate Credits June 3, 2008 Posted by davidzweig in Uncategorized. trackback Marc Gunther is one of the best progressive business writers in the business. His blog describes arecent interview with Jim Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy, on the subject of the Warner-Lieberman carbon credit bill which is ikely destined to die in the Senate Jim Rogers…opposes Lieberman-Warner because it would require his company and others that aburn coal to spend billions buying permits. That seems fair, on the face of it; these companies are the polluters, after all. But as he notes, regulators urged utilities to build coal plants in the 1970s and 1980s. Their higher costs will be passed on to customers. And the revenues generated by auctioning permits are designated for a long list of Senators’ pet projects, some only tenuously related to climate change. It’s the ultimate in earmarks, he argues. Agree with him or not, it’s a potent political argument. [...] [...] Energy on Climate Credits June 3, 2008 Posted by davidzweig in Uncategorized. trackback Marc Gunther is one of the best progressive business writers in the business. His blog describes arecent interview with Jim Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy, on the subject of the Warner-Lieberman carbon credit bill which is ikely destined to die in the Senate Jim Rogers…opposes Lieberman-Warner because it would require his company and others that aburn coal to spend billions buying permits. That seems fair, on the face of it; these companies are the polluters, after all. But as he notes, regulators urged utilities to build coal plants in the 1970s and 1980s. Their higher costs will be passed on to customers. And the revenues generated by auctioning permits are designated for a long list of Senators’ pet projects, some only tenuously related to climate change. It’s the ultimate in earmarks, he argues. Agree with him or not, it’s a potent political argument. [...]

]]> http://www.marcgunther.com/2008/05/31/lieberman-warner-going-nowhere/comment-page-1/#comment-54888 Clint Roswell Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:21:07 +0000 http://www.marcgunther.com/?p=372#comment-54888 You bring out some interesting points, Marc, andI understand the frustration of seemingly having so many views on how to approach this issue there doesn't seem to be a consensus around one approach. Given the nature of our business, IBM will be less directly affected by policies to control greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to organizations or certain industry sectors that have significantly greater GHG emissions,nor do we possess the same degree of expertise or familiarity regarding the effectiveness of various GHG policy or regulatory approaches. As a result, we have not engaged in any significant way on the merits of particular regulatory or policy proposals. But we’re also not standing on the sidelines. Rather than focusing on specific design issues for future regulation, we’re making reductions today and working on initiatives and products that will improve energy efficiency (and reduce carbon emissions) throughout the economy. It is our pursuit of these latter objectives that we have engaged with the Climate Savers program. You bring out some interesting points, Marc, andI understand the frustration of seemingly having so many views on how to approach this issue there doesn’t seem to be a consensus around one approach. Given the nature of our business, IBM will be less directly affected by policies to control greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to organizations or certain industry sectors that have significantly greater GHG emissions,nor do we possess the same degree of expertise or familiarity regarding the effectiveness of various GHG policy or regulatory approaches. As a result, we have not engaged in any significant way on the merits of particular regulatory or policy proposals. But we’re also not standing on the sidelines. Rather than focusing on specific design issues for future regulation, we’re making reductions today and working on initiatives and products that will improve energy efficiency (and reduce carbon emissions) throughout the economy. It is our pursuit of these latter objectives that we have engaged with the Climate Savers program.

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