Big names in energy set to endorse drastic U.S. climate action
WASHINGTON — A climate change think tank working with some of the world’s largest energy companies is pressing Congress to take drastic action to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, including a drastic cut in carbon-emitting vehicles and an end to subsidies for fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas.
Among the companies whose names were listed on the report, which was set to be presented Wednesday to Congress by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, are the British oil major BP, the Australian mining company BHP, the chemical companies Dow and BASF and Exelon Corp., a Chicago power company.
“What distinguishes this report is the close engagement of the companies across the key sectors of the economy that are going to have to do the work,” said Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the climate group. “There’s been a fair amount of ground truthing.”
The move puts further pressure on a Congress that is facing increasingly calls for action on climate change, not just from environmentalists but corporate CEOs for whom sustainability is fast becoming a metric by which they are judged by investors.
Among the report’s recommendations:
• Create an economy-wide carbon pricing program.
• Set a date for requiring coal and natural gas power plants to install carbon capture technology or participate in a sequestration credit program.
• Require half of new lightduty vehicles to be zero emission by 2035.
• Phase out federal subsidies for “higher carbon” energy sources — fossil fuels — and replace them with tax credits for wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear reactors and batteries
On Capitol Hill, most Republicans and many Democrats have indicated little willingness to take action at the level the climate group’s report recommends. Still, Congress has become increasingly responsive on
the need for climate action, as flooding, wildfires and other consequences of climate change affect their districts.
Bipartisan legislation increasing funding for research into technology such as carbon capture and grid-scale batteries is moving ahead. And the Senate Climate Solutions Caucus, which requires equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans, announced last week it now has eight senators participating, including Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
“We see very significant momentum at the moment,” Diringer said.
Meanwhile, most of the world’s countries are moving ahead on the Paris Agreement, the landmark 2015 international agreement from which President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States.
Next month world leaders are set to meet in Madrid to discuss how to structure international carbon markets - critical to creating financing for zero-emissions energy projects — a topic on which they could not reach an agreement at a meeting in Poland last year.