Dec 15 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Joshua Boak Chicago Tribune

As delegates to the UN-sponsored conference on climate change struggled to reach an agreement in Bali, Indonesia, one of the interest groups rooting for a mandate on pollution controls might seem surprising: American big business.

An otherwise natural ally of the Bush administration, the owners of factories and energy plants have come down alongside environmentalists in seeking mandatory targets to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.

The Bush administration's position has been to reject mandatory targets, and the Bali conference was extended past its scheduled Friday conclusion to see if the more than 180 national delegations could strike a deal setting out the path for future negotiations.

Several American companies and corporate interest groups have been outspoken in their disagreement with the White House, which wants to see voluntary emissions cuts. The companies' choice stems from concerns about the financial instability that could result from global warming, which could produce volatile weather, intense heat and rising sea levels that could throw governments and markets into turmoil.

The companies and their trade organizations are promoting less drastic targets than what European Union members have pushed in Bali, saying that the development of zero-emission technologies lags behind the diplomats' intentions. As a result, they prefer to see mandated heavier drops in emissions after 2050 rather than the 25 percent to 40 percent reduction by 2020 proposed in Bali.

"For the business community, having some certainty and knowing what the future is going to look like is crucial," said Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. "They're essentially asking to be regulated, which is not typical for business."

Yet that has been the emerging pattern in the U.S. on the issue of climate change, because power companies and manufacturers have been calling on the Bush administration to create policies to reduce greenhouse gases. Corporate America's fear is that a vacuum at the federal level would give states an opening to create their own laws, which could conflict with each other.

Strange bedfellows

The way global warming has drawn disparate interests together is epitomized by Claussen's non-profit group. The Washington-based organization works with 45 corporations. It also belongs to the United States Climate Action Partnership, which includes the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co., General Motors Corp., Shell Oil Co. and Exelon Corp., the parent company of Commonwealth Edison.

"They're representing our interests and others," said GM spokesman Greg Martin when asked about the conference.

As policy director for the Nuclear Energy Institute, Paul Genoa watched the debate unfold firsthand in Bali. Genoa said corporate interests would rather have all-encompassing standards than "a patchwork quilt of regulations that is almost impossible to deal with."

Chicago-based Exelon and other members of the climate group object to the laissez-faire approach embraced by the U.S. government, which along with Japan and Russia wants negotiations about greenhouse-gas emissions to continue during the next two years without any specific targets.

"We disagree fundamentally," said Betsy Moler, Exelon's executive vice president for government affairs. "Aspirational goals won't get met. We think it needs to be a mandatory economywide program."

Exelon, the country's largest nuclear operator, has a rhetorical ally in former Vice President Al Gore, who told delegates in Bali on Thursday that America is "primarily responsible for obstructing progress here."

A cautious approach

Yet Moler cautioned that Gore probably wishes American companies were more ambitious. Their caution comes from having to switch energy usage without interrupting profits. And the technology for cutting emissions is either too controversial, such as nuclear power, or premature in development to meet the Bali targets.

"Given the projected growth in energy demand worldwide, and particularly the rapid growth in expanding economies such as China, India and Russia, how is the world going to meet the demand of those consumers with timetables and mandatory targets on emissions of greenhouse gases?" asked Carol Raulston, a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, which had a representative in Bali. "The targets being discussed now would make it difficult."

Raulston said the association is indifferent on the subject of timetables, but any mandatory targets should correspond with the development of zero-emission coal power plants.

Electricity consumption moves in tandem with the economy. Between 1973 and 2004, per-capita income increased by 80 percent in America, while electricity use rose by 111 percent, government records show.

Nuclear power is not among the approved clean-development mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. But delegates in Bali did consider whether the separation and burial of carbon dioxide from coal power plants in aquifers a mile beneath the Earth's surface would be acceptable.

The FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a $1.5 billion public-private partnership with the Department of Energy, is exploring the process, known as sequestration. It will announce next week whether a 275-megawatt prototype plant will be constructed in Illinois or Texas.

"Before you can expect industry to build plants with these features, it needs to be proven," said Mike Mudd, chief executive of the alliance. "We need to have the technology first in order to make that possible. As of right now, the technology is not there."

What FutureGen has is that patchwork quilt. Since no regulations exist about sequestration, Mudd said lawyers are busy performing due diligence on property rights for the stretches of land that could be above the stored carbon dioxide.

"As you blaze the trail, you create both the rules and the technology," Mudd said. "And the risk is once the rules are written, they are hard to change."

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jboak@tribune.com