An article published in today's Washington Post, "Energy Firms Come to Terms With Climate Change," reports that many oil company executives have largely conceded that global warming is real and are preparing for federal regulations that will limit greenhouse gas emissions. According to the WaPo article, "The companies have been hiring new lobbyists who they hope can help fashion a national approach that would avert a patchwork of state plans now in the works. They are also working to change some company practices in anticipation of the regulation."
From the WaPo article:
"We have to deal with greenhouse gases," John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., said in a recent speech at the National Press Club. "From Shell's point of view, the debate is over. When 98 percent of scientists agree, who is Shell to say, 'Let's debate the science'?" Hofmeister and other top energy company leaders, such as Duke Energy Corp.'s chief executive, James E. Rogers, back a proposal that would cap greenhouse gas emissions and allow firms to trade their quotas.
Paul M. Anderson, Duke Energy's chairman and a member of the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, favors a tax on emissions of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas. His firm is the nation's third-largest burner of coal.
Exxon Mobil Corp., the highest-profile corporate skeptic about global warming, said in September that it was considering ending its funding of a think tank that has sought to cast doubts on climate change. And on Nov. 2, the company announced that it will contribute more than $1.25 million to a European Union study on how to store carbon dioxide in natural gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea, Algeria and Germany.
This is welcome news to many people, myself included, who are concerned about the global climate change that has been occuring over the past 100 years or so. The WaPo article quoted Senator Barbara Boxer as saying that global warming is "the greatest challenge of our generation." Senator Boxer will be the new Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, replacing James Inhofe (R-Okla.). Senator Inhofe said in a January 4, 2005 statement that "... much of the debate over global warming is predicated on fear, rather than science ... (global warming is the) ... greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people..."
Duke Energy is already including provisions for carbon emissions in the cost estimates for a new coal-fired generating plant. John L. Stowell, Vice President for environmental policy said, "Our viewpoint is that it's going to happen. There's scientific evidence of climate change. We'd like to know what legislation will be put together so that, when we figure out how to increase our load, we know exactly what to expect."
Not all energy companies are taking the position that reductions in carbon gas emission is inevitable. TXU Corp. is planning to build 11 new coal-fired power plants, which would more than double the company's annual carbon dioxide emissions. A TXU spokeswoman said that they support "a comprehensive, voluntary, technology-based approach to global climate change based on carbon intensity" that is both "flexible and cost effective."
The WaPo article says that some businesses are already increasing staff to work on global warming legislation. At least six of the companies that belong to Pew Center on Global Climate Change "Business Environmental Leadership Council" have recently hired staff members focused on global warming, according to the WaPo article.
In related news, the Supreme Court has taken a case that will determine whether the federal government is required to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant.