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Three Major Firms Pull Out of Climate Change Alliance ConocoPhillips, BP America and Caterpillar pulled out of a leading alliance of businesses and environmental groups pushing for climate change legislation on Tuesday, citing complaints that the bills under consideration are unfair to American industry. The sudden pullout of three corporate giants from a leading alliance of businesses and environmental groups could be the death knell for climate change legislation languishing on Capitol Hill. ConocoPhillips, BP America and Caterpillar's announced Tuesday they will pull out of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, citing complaints that the bills now in Congress are unfair...

NLPC is sponsoring a PepsiCo shareholder proposal asking for a report on the company’s lobbying priorities. At the PepsiCo annual tomorrow in Plano, Texas, I will argue that the company’s lobbying priorities are seriously out of whack. I will cite PepsiCo’s membership in U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a coalition of corporations and environmental groups. USCAP’s mission is to “quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.” The House of Representatives has obliged in the form of the Waxman-Markey bill that would destroy over 1.1 million jobs, hike electricity rates 90 percent, and reduce the...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ruled that PepsiCo may not exclude a shareholder proposal filed by NLPC that asks the company for a report on its lobbying priorities. PepsiCo is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a coalition of corporations and environmental groups that lobbies for the disastrous cap and trade legislation. Our resolution will appear in PepsiCo’s proxy materials, and I will speak in its support at the company’s annual meeting this spring.By trying to preclude a shareholder discussion of this and other issues, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi seems unwilling to publicly defend the...

Looks like there’s a stampede to exit the United States Climate Action Partnership. Copier king Xerox (XRX) and insurance broker Marsh (MMC) apparently are no longer in the business-green alliance supporting cap-and-trade legislation, or so says Tom Borelli, director of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project. On Tuesday, energy giants BP (BP) and ConocoPhillips (COP), along with heavy equipment maker Caterpillar (CAT), said they were leaving the group.

Although they never should have been a part of it in the first place, three major companies have exited the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a coalition of corporations and environmental groups. USCAP’s mission is to “quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.” The House has obliged and the result, the Waxman-Markey bill, is too strong for both the Senate and the American people. Instead of taking a principled stand against massive government intervention in the energy economy, corporate executives argued that global warming legislation was coming anyway, so it was better to...

HOUSTON, Feb. 16, 2010 -- ConocoPhillips [NYSE: COP] today announced that it will not be renewing its membership in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP). This action enables the company to better focus its efforts on ensuring fair and equitable treatment of the transportation sector and its consumers and on expanding opportunities for greater near-term GHG reductions through increased use of natural gas. "As an active member of USCAP, we owe a great deal of credit to our colleagues, both companies and non-government organizations alike," said Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips chairman and chief executive officer. "USCAPÂ’s diverse membership and high-level commitment...

Three large corporations are quitting the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a broad group of businesses and environmental organizations that has been instrumental in building support in Washington for capping U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases. Oil giants BP PLC and ConocoPhillips along with Caterpillar, Inc., the Peoria, Ill., heavy-equipment maker, have decided against renewing their membership in the organization, according to a statement released by the group Tuesday.

An internal memo produced by Bernstein Research in June described how Mr. Rowe met with investors to rejoice that the House legislation will allow Exelon to rake in additional revenue—by some estimates, up to $1.5 billion a year. Others will pay for this Exelon privilege, of course—notably, Midwestern customers of traditional coal utilities who will see their energy prices double. But hey, all's fair in love and lobbying. ...Let's also not forget that Chicago-based Exelon and employees, including Mr. Rowe, contributed tens of thousands of dollars for their home-city presidential aspirant. And that Mr. Obama's senior adviser, David Axelrod, was...

House votes to enrich General Electric and other U.S. Climate Action Partnership members at Public's Expense The House of Representatives just passed the Waxman-Markey "climate change" bill, whose real purpose is to enrich the U.S. Climate Action Partnership: a consortium of self-serving corporations like General Electric, General Motors, and Chrysler, and nonprofits like the Sierra Club that have to find some way to pay their executives and staffs without delivering tangible manufactured products or other items of value to society. It has been reported that Nancy Pelosi "persuaded" undecided Democrats by offering them pork barrel projects, again at the expense...

Today, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, wrote Atty. Gen. Eric Holder to ask if bailed-out, taxpayer-owned carmakers General Motors and Chrysler are breaking any laws by continuing to lobby the federal government while owned by the federal government, Sensenbrenner's office has told me. Specifically, Sensenbrenner singled out GM's and Chrysler's membership in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of Fortune 500 companies and environmental non-profits dedicated to lobbying for federal restrictions on greenhouse gas--specifically, the sort of cap-and-trade scheme at the heart of the Waxman-Markey bill currently before the House. A quote from...

We contended previously that membership in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership does not speak well of a company's mission or strategy, although there are admittedly good performers on the list. This is because a well-managed corporation does not need government mandates to force businesses and individuals to buy its products (e.g. alternative energy sources, compact fluorescent lamps). As an example, if General Electric was up to the job of engineering cost-effective wind turbines and solar panels, it would probably not be able to make them quickly enough to keep up with demand even without tax credits to encourage their purchase....

Jim Rogers is not happy with the Obama administration. Ever since the White House unveiled its costly climate program, the CEO of Duke Energy has been arguing the proposals amount to nothing more than a tax. Indeed. Mr. Rogers belongs to the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, about 30 companies that decided to [cooperate on] global warming legislation. The group demanded a "cap-and-trade" system, figuring they'd craft the rules so as to obtain regulatory certainty, with little upfront cost. At the time, Mr. Rogers explained: "If you don't have a seat at the table, you'll wind up on the menu." ......

The U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) supports the imposition of greenhouse gas regulations, largely for self-serving reasons. General Electric, for example, cannot apparently manufacture cost-effective wind turbines and solar power generation systems, so it needs government mandates to force customers to buy them. Lehman Brothers meanwhile wanted to speculate in carbon emission credits, i.e. act as a non-value-adding middleman that profits from the exchange of the modern equivalent of medieval indulgences. It is no surprise that a company whose management cannot deliver anything of genuine value to society is no longer in business. Government bailout client AIG also was a...

Banking problems and “toxic assets” are major contributors to the ongoing decline in the stock market, but it is quite likely that investors took them into account last year. The 800 pound gorilla in the living room that nobody seems to want to talk about consists of Barack Obama’s agenda (per his State of the Union Address) to impose taxes on all fossil fuels, or require users of fossil fuels to buy carbon offset credits from the modern counterparts of medieval indulgence peddlers. As long as this agenda continues to menace the United States, investors are rightly reluctant to invest...

When the housing bubble burst, it exposed an unseemly alliance between special interests and the financial sector. Activists wanted homes for all at any cost, and lenders were happy to oblige despite the inherent risk. Although the economic devastation this bubble wrought is still not under control, a similar toxic alliance is working on the next one: The green bubble. Failing companies such as AIG, General Electric and General Motors, already propped up with tax dollars, have partnered with radical environmentalists in a scheme their CEOs believe will allow them to profit on fears about global warming. Corporate members of...

Kimberley Strassel's If the Cap Fits: Why our CEOs are warming to Kyoto shows that the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP or CAP for short) includes many companies that seek corporate welfare in the form of government-mandated purchases of their services or products. Many of USCAP's members do not, in fact, even claim to produce a product or service, and are dependent on donations or grants. The recent performance of USCAP's portfolio also suggests that the Climate Action Partnership is Wall Street's Oscar the Cat: a harbinger of bankruptcy, desperate mergers, and generally poor business performance. ...While several of CAP's...