Industry Lobbies Against Climate Change

Business Groups Campaign Against Climate Change Bill

Energy companies and other business interests have launched a nationwide campaign to undermine climate change legislation pending in Congress, saying it could cost millions of jobs, drive gasoline prices sharply higher and suck thousands of dollars from household incomes.

The effort comes as the Senate prepares to take up a bill in the coming months that would impose mandatory emissions reductions. The proposed bill would set a nationwide cap on emissions, and create a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, forcing companies to pay to pollute.

A recent study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation estimates that the U.S. economy would have fewer jobs and face at least $631 billion in costs by 2020 should Congress institute an emissions reduction program.

On a 17-state tour that began this week with stops in North Dakota and Montana, industry-funded economists said the legislation threatens to sacrifice three to four million jobs over the next two decades, as higher energy prices dampen industrial production.

Higher gas and electricity prices also would take a bite out of workers' paychecks, to the tune of up to $6,700 a year by 2030, said Margo Thorning, chief economist with the American Council for Capital Formation, whose supporters include ExxonMobil Corp.

"The link between economic growth and energy can't be broken," Thorning said. "There will be cutbacks in production, losses in productivity."

Supporters of greenhouse gas restrictions rejected Thorning's claims as biased and exaggerated. The burning of fossil fuels is considered the top human-caused contributor to climate change.

An adviser to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer -- a Democrat who has prodded for federal action on the issue -- called Thorning's economic projections "nonsense" after she spoke Wednesday in Billings.

"They've been denying climate change is happening for so long, and now they're trying anything they can to scare people," said Eric Stern, senior counselor to Schweitzer. "This is a petroleum industry front group that is literally like a cigarette company promoting a study that says smoking is good for you."

Upcoming stops scheduled for the industry's "Climate Change Dialogue" tour include locations in Alaska, Ohio, New Hampshire and Tennessee.

Associated Press (In Yahoo News)
March 20, 2008

back