Climate leaders wanted!
by Fresh EnergyBy Rick Fuentes, senior media relations specialist, Fresh Energy
Last week, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy CEO Dick Kelly asked Congress to raise his taxes – specifically, his carbon taxes. In a statement that may sound the Paul Revere-like alarm for climate and energy policy, Kelly thinks the U.S. Senate chickened out of a climate bill. They backed off and “started calling it ‘cap and tax,’” Kelly told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Kelly is head of a multistate utility that has increasingly moved away from coal power and spent millions to retrofit some of its plants to cleaner-burning natural gas. Kelly is joined in his attitude by Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers. Rogers has also stated that the “growing consensus in the electric utility industry” is to “act now.” Rogers points to private capital that’s waiting for a predictable regulatory landscape to set the stage for investment into clean energy.
Follow that up with a cadre of banks that are also saying they will shift away from environmentally risky investments. Wells Fargo, a minor player in the mining, drilling, and digging world, said it will make its involvement with mountaintop removal companies “limited” and “declining.” Dutch bank Rabobank has even instituted a nine-point checklist for conditions for would-be oil and gas borrowers that includes commitments to improve environmental performance and protect water quality. Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America are also increasing scrutiny of companies that perform mountaintop removal. Of course, some of these lenders have also supported companies involved with tar sands mining, but that’s another story.
Of course, the bottom line behind these decisions is the bottom line. Environmental clean-up is messy. Mitigating air and water pollution is expensive. Appearing anti-green is bad PR. Some say that companies could even be exposed to liability from investors if they fail to act on climate change-related losses to harvests, inventories, vehicles, buildings, and even lives. After all, companies can’t say they didn’t know global warming was coming.
Regardless of the reasoning, the more C-level business people who speak out about the need for climate policy that protects investors and profits from global warming, the better.
After all, where are the insurance companies? Where are the folks who stand to lose billions, even trillions, to environmental disasters that are becoming more frequent? Where are the risk managers who can only guess at the statistical factors where a one percent change in global temperature means an exponential amount of damage to holdings? Where are the car companies? Where are the folks who could actually stand up to the oil industry and demand standards that would create new markets for more efficient vehicles? Products that would renew trust in American ingenuity. And jobs that would endear them again to proud Americans.
If climate solutions are also your business solutions, your voice must be heard. Links below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/business/energy-environment/31coal.html?src=tptw
