The Global Climate Coalition, a lobbying group made up primarily of U.S. energy companies, has (TO THEIR GREAT CREDIT) taken a very hard line on the science of global warming. The GCC has been so successful that "global warming" is now called "global climate change."
But no good deed goes unpunished.
Several weeks ago, Inside EPA reported about a group of companies that broke away from the GCC to form something called the International Climate Change Partnership, a more moderate and conciliatory body -- where "moderate" and "concilatory" are not complimentary adjectives.
Companies in the ICCP, including AT&T, Dupont, 3M and other members of the Fortune 100, are looking to cut a deal with Vice President Gore et al. on the climate change issue. After all, their businesses don't depend directly on burning fossil fuels.
Now Nature has reported that BP America and the Arizona Public Service Company (two fossil fuel companies) have left the GCC, apparently in favor of the ICCP. An Arizona Public Service Company representative stated that
... to continue to attack the science — which the GCC is basically doing — is not the way forward.
I guess they figure that irrational fear should take precedence over science.[Link to recent stories about a telling Tim Wirth acknowledgment, a telling NOAA acknowledgment, what's really causing sea level to rise, how smog is our friends, and how the tree huggers are being given up by the very trees they hug!
Not to pick on ICCP member Dupont but...Dupont committed similar treachery on the CFC- ozone depletion issue several years ago. When Dupont's patent on the CFC-based refrigerant freon was about to expire (which would have allowed competitors to start manufacturing freon), Dupont developed a freon substitute, patented it, and then supported the CFC ban. This action ensured Dupont's EXCLUSIVE rights to manufacture the freon substitute for the next 17 years.
Now because of Dupont's actions, it costs several hundred dollars to recharge a car's air conditioning system with the freon substitute, versus about $20 with freon.
Thanks Dupont. What largess can we expect from your (and the ICCP's) sellout of science this time?
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