Posted on 03/20/2007 2:37:09 PM PDT by Shermy
WASHINGTON - Large pension funds and companies called Monday for Congress to create a cap-and-trade system for curbing emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming, the latest among several business-oriented groups to call for a national climate policy.
The 65 signers of a letter to President Bush called for a 60 to 90 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050, a goal that could require, among other changes, a major shift away from fossil fuels used to run power plants and automobiles. The letter promotes a market-based system that would give companies the incentive to curtail growth of these emissions.
The White House opposes mandatory, economy-wide carbon caps to deal with climate, instead citing its efforts to spend almost $3 billion a year on energy-technology research and development to slow climate change. Critics of strict limits on greenhouse gases, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, argue that any new laws on climate change should be crafted to avoid harming the economy.
The investors involved in Monday's announcement, who manage a total of $4 trillion, argued that a lack of action is worse for American business.
The investors' statement "says that climate action is good for business, and the current state of uncertainty is bad for business," said former Sen. Tim Wirth, a president of the United Nations Foundation, at a press conference announcing the effort, which was organized by Ceres, a Boston-based environmental investment group.
Largest public pension fund on board Fred Buenrostro, chief executive of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, the nation's largest public pension fund, said federal climate regulations would help "unleash American ingenuity and investment know-how."
The companies signing the also letter include the chief executives of utility companies Exelon Corp., Consolidated Edison Inc. and high tech firm Sun Microsystems Inc. Other signers, including Alcoa Inc. BP America and DuPont Co., had already joined in January with environmental groups to call for climate legislation.
Mark Goldfus, a senior vice president at Merrill Lynch & Co., said the investment bank sees big business in a potential global market for trading carbon emission credits. Merrill Lynch, for example, could act as a broker as companies all around the world would buy and sell the right to release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
"We think this is a business in which we can do both well and good," he said.
Several lawmakers have introduced bills this year to tackle climate change.
Many lawmakers' bills would use a cap-and-trade system, which would put in place mandatory limits for greenhouse gas emissions, but would allow companies to trade emission credits to reduce the cost. Companies that can't meet the cap could purchase credits from those that exceed them.
Doubling of CO2 predicted The Electric Power Research Institute forecasts that, with today's technology, global carbon dioxide emissions will more than double by 2050 to 80 billion metric tons a year. The U.S. already accounts for more than 7 billion tons a year. The group says it is possible to make significant reductions, in those emissions, but says it will take a mix of technologies — including nuclear power, energy efficiency and advanced technology to capture carbon emissions at coal plants, to make that goal possible.
Ray Kopp, a senior fellow with Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan environmental policy group that was not involved with Monday's announcement said that, while climate change legislation is not likely to pass while President Bush is in office, many companies believe is it is inevitable in the long run.
Companies, especially big emitters of greenhouse gases, want to influence legislation early on, he said.
"If these policies are going to be developed, they want to have a hand in it," Kopp said. "They see themselves as the targets of regulation."
"Largest public pension fund on board
Fred Buenrostro, chief executive of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, the nation's largest public pension fund, said federal climate regulations would help "unleash American ingenuity and investment know-how."
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Any people in this pension? Why not write to all the fiduciary officials and advise them of their duties to study the history of carbon credit trading in Europe.
Did they invest in Enron too?
Follow the money, where are the bi$$ions going? Anyone in ML should pull out early and frustrate the fund.
Who's deciding how big the pot is to start? It's a shame.
Follow the money. These funds want to establish a carbon trading scheme that would be a monetary windfall for them.
They're all rooting for it because they'd be the ones collecting the servicing percentages and fees on carbon accounts.
It's fascinating to observe the early stages of the creation of a new form of money.
sad stuff indeed
Wanting in on the ponzi scheme, I see.
Make a note everyone to do no business with Merrill Lynch and the rest of these idiot companies.
Before they get started on this, can I go ahead and sell the "carbon emissions credits" I already printed up? Got a big stack of 'em in the trunk of my car. I was over in Al Gore's neighborhood earlier today, but thankfully it was for some "selfish" folks that wanted new kitchen counters in exchange for their money.
I used to have an account with those guys years ago. Seems like every time I grumble about my experiences I find I'm talking to others with their own 'Merrill Lynch stories.
Large pension funds and companies called Monday for Congress to create a cap-and-trade system for curbing emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming, the latest among several business-oriented groups to call for a national climate policy.
Free or capitalist marketers don't seek government to hinder the competition or give their own company unfair advantage. Political marketers do. The CO2 hoax -- cap-and-trade, in this case -- has sizeable revenues in store for large pension funds that trade the credits.
It may at first appear that the companies have a fiduciary responsibility to use even dishonest methods to increase profits or assets. It may be short-term profitable but in the long run it will kill the company. This is largely how the leviathan government got where it is.
Man-caused global warming is a hoax. How many businesses with white-collar business quislings at the helm are, in whole or in part, reliant on a government mandated hoax for their profitability?
YouTube -- The Great Global Warming Swindle
"Who's deciding how big the pot is to start?"
Why, you go to the carbon registry and they "analyze" your footprint.
Naturally everyone will overestimate their footprint so they can show reductions, and earn credits by doing nothing!
So many scams,
Perhaps scariest - the trading plan incentivizes deindustrialization. How? Say you are Ford, and you want to shut down some car plants. You get paid to do it with carbon credit earnings.
Worse, even if there were no prior plans to close plants, the ability to earn carbon credits therefrom incentivizes shut downs!
Naturally it is a game the big players will win and the smaller will lose.
There's a variety of motives. Electricity companies who use more hydro and natural gas want the caps because it disadvantages other using more coal. The coal energy becomes more expensive, the natural gas/hydro can increase their rates to match!
The investors' statement "says that climate action is good for business, and the current state of uncertainty is bad for business," said former Sen. Tim Wirth, a president of the United Nations Foundation,
The uncertainty is whether the government will act as if it's a real problem instead of the hoax that it is. So yes, the uncertainty is a problem. Clearly from the facts, the uncertainty can be ended by declaring the man-made CO2 global warming non-problem for what it is: a massive hoax. Or, if you prefer: The Great Global Warming Swindle
Largest public pension fund on board Fred Buenrostro, chief executive of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, the nation's largest public pension fund, said federal climate regulations would help "unleash American ingenuity and investment know-how."
Like the energy companies haven't known for decades that there has been a growing demand for energy and must use ingenuity to advance technologies to continue supplying the increasing demand. They tried with nuclear energy but the government the above bureaucrat wants to solve the non-problem of man-caused global warming stopped that technology. So the parasite Buenrostro goes back to the root of the problem and asks for more problems.
"unleash American ingenuity and investment know-how."
I don't think he's talking about producing electrity,
but the ingenuity and know-how of the Drexel Burnham Lambert alumni
Brad, those sound like investments in actual things.
But,
Corporate Governance Environmental Strategy
CalPERS Board has adopted a plan to shine light on corporate environmental liabilities, and improve transparency and timely disclosure of environmental impacts. Under the plan, we are pursuing a number of initiatives aimed at improving environmental data transparency. Read more about the strategy here
The first way I read this is as an "insider" message about the concerns of false reporting of carbon credits, outputs and savings. Accountability is nearly accurately impossible - one reason why the scam is so attractive to many industries.
But then I read the link, and all is there is a suggestion large companies give their estimate on their carbon emissions.
Naturally, they all lied and overestimated, but who cares? A market is being created! Markets are good, no?
but the ingenuity and know-how of the Drexel Burnham Lambert alumni
That was a sham. The equivalent of parking tickets was portrayed as a huge crime and put a feather in then prosecutor, Rudy Giuliani's cap. Milkum, with Drexel's backing were financing corporate takeovers that were cleaning the waste and stagnation out of the companies. The ivory-tower white-collar business quislings pushed for shutting down the competition that Milkum and Drexel presented. Now if you had said Enron, I'd agree that that is a valid analogy.
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