It’s Getting Hot In Here

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

Businessweek isn’t exactly the paragon of reporting on environmental issues, but it sure blew the climate whistle a few days ago in this piece. The story, as many do, begins with two households: the US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a brainchild of NRDC, Environmental Defense, along with GE, Alcoa, BP, and Duke Energy, pushing for a federal cap-and-trade bill; and the Center for Energy and Economic Development (CEED), an industry group that promotes coal and opposes climate legislation.

USCAP members have signed onto statements and actively advocated for climate policies that are on par with the latest IPCC reports: 60-80% carbon cuts by 2050, and fairly strong interim targets, a virtually unprecedented change of regulatory heart by CEO’s of America’s largest industrial corporations. And, being heads of industry, they’ve received a warm welcome on Capitol Hill.

CEED actively opposes any legislation regulating or capping greenhouse gases and believes, as CEO of GM Frank Lutz eloquently said on the record a few weeks ago, that climate change is “a total crock of shit.” GM is a member of both CEED and USCAP. In addition, CEED helped birth the rather euphemistic Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC), which launched a $35 million astroturf campaign to convince the public–and the presidential candidates–that “clean coal” should be America’s energy source. Check out this video of ABEC and climate activists sparring on the campaign trail.

Despite an ancient grudge over climate science and the need for strong federal policy, USCAP and CEED have something in common–their membership rolls. GE, Alcoa and Caterpillar, all members of USCAP, sit on the board of CEED, and Duke Energy was one of ABEC’s founding members and primary funders. Building more coal plants, needless to say, will not help stop climate change.

Are the corporations flip-flopping, doublespeaking, playing climate activists for fools, getting their greenwashed cake and eating it, too? Much of the debate over caps and priorities comes down to the vague promise of carbon capture and sequestration, the technological basis for ABEC’s “clean coal” rhetoric. Most industry execs, when pinned down, will admit that “clean coal” is far from being a reality–that we need to put more federal dollars into research and development before carbon capture is ready to be deployed on any economical scale.

CEED has, so to say, spilled the civil blood, and made industry’s greenwashed hands unclean. I think it’s time to mutiny.