Dirty Industries Seek Free Pollution Credits from Government
May 6, 2009 · Print This Article
The very same industries that have helped get the world into this global warming mess in the first place are now asking the government for free passes to keep on polluting under legislation for capping greenhouse gases. Electric utilities, automakers, oil companies and natural gas refineries are among the industries that believe they should get pollution credits, complements of the Obama administration.
From the Wall Street Journal:
The measure by Reps. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) and Edward Markey (D., Mass.) calls for reducing U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions roughly 20% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83% below 2005 levels by mid-century. It is largely silent on how much companies would have to pay for pollution permits under a proposed cap-and-trade system that would allow companies to buy and sell such permits.
“There are a lot of things in the bill I need to have changed,” said Rep. Gene Green (D., Texas). Mr. Green, whose district is home to the largest petrochemical complex in the world, wants Mr. Waxman to give some pollution permits to oil refiners for free. “If that’s not in the bill, I can’t vote for it,” he said.
Refiners are lobbying to get for free 30% of the pollution permits, an amount that corresponds roughly to the share of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions produced by transportation fuel. Without such allowances, the industry says, it will lose out to refineries in India and the Middle East that ship their product to the U.S. and don’t operate under carbon caps at home.
“The electric utilities want 40%, and if they’re getting 40%, the refiners say ‘Why shouldn’t we get 30%?”‘ Mr. Green said. Mr. Green said he has asked Mr. Waxman to give the refining industry a smaller share of the allowances — roughly 5%.
These industries have had years to prepare – they should have known that greenhouse gas caps would go into effect eventually. Instead of being proactive and starting a long time ago to slowly reduce their emissions, they’re now finding themselves in the desperate situation of being forced into major changes in a short amount of time.
Link [Wall Street Journal]
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That is the worst thing that we could do. We can always count on Wall Street to care about itself and nobody else. Cap-and-trade may not be the most economically-friendly approach to global warming but there are alternatives such Henderson’s cap-and-restructure .
The latter would foster the development of the renewable energy sector by addressing the economic cause of problems rather than symptoms. The strategy is outlined at Global Warming and the Green Economy.
Tags: Cap-and-Trade Alternative Solutions