US climate change skeptic urges industry to oppose carbon cap

Pittsburgh (Platts)--14Mar2007

The US coal and power industries as well as other sectors are getting the
wrong advice when they are told they need to shape greenhouse gas trading
legislation, a leading climate change skeptic said Wednesday.

Myron Ebell, the Competitive Enterprise Institute's director of energy
and global warming policy, told an American Coal Council conference on mercury
and carbon emissions that US businesses are getting "incredibly bad advice"
from members of Congress on the need to support federal GHG legislation in
hopes of curbing climate change,

Citing a Wednesday article in Platts' Emissions Daily, Ebell noted that
House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee Chairman Richard Boucher,
Democrat-Virginia, said Tuesday that the energy sector and others should be at
the negotiating table on legislation now with so many Republicans in the
Senate and a Republican president.

Boucher reasons that industry is likely to get a more favorable policy
with input from Senate Republicans and President George W. Bush than if they
wait until 2009 or later.

US political history has shown companies that "hold out" until the last
possible minute on legislation "get the best deal," Ebell said.

Although some businesses -- such as Pacific Gas and Electric and
others -- are calling for a federal GHG cap-and-trade program, these "big
companies" are pushing the approach "because they've figured out how to make
money off higher energy prices," Ebell said.

--Martin Coyne, martin_coyne@platts.com