“The United States fully intends to be the world’s preeminent leader in protecting the global environment. [E]nvironmental protection makes growth sustainable…. [This] recognition … by leaders from around the world is the central accomplishment of this important [United Nations] Rio Conference.”
– George H. W. Bush, “News Conference in Rio de Janeiro, June 13, 1992.
“Bush restored federal subsidies to the Carter-era renewable-energy and energy-efficiency programs that had been cut under Reagan. All-Things-to-All-People Bush also signed the Clean Air Act of 1990, which took the acid-rain scare at face value, a signal about his openness toward the global-warming issue to come.”
– Robert Bradley, Enron Ascending: The Forgotten Years (2018), p. 332.
In “This is when the GOP turned away from Climate Policy, E&E News recalled the good ol’ days when George H.…
“Kinder Morgan … has a natural incentive to capture methane emissions where economical. It is also in the CO2 business of increasing crude oil recovery. The good news is that there is not a hint of uneconomic action to reduce methane or CO2 emissions in its operations. Such “no regrets” avoids the keep-it-in-the-ground fanaticism of the anti-fossil-fuel lobby and buys time for the crusade of “climate stabilization” to die of its own weight.”
“Kinder Morgan’s “Statement on Climate Change” smartly places the climate-change issue in a global and economic context. But it gives unqualified deference to the notion that CO2 emissions as an inherent bad must be minimized rather than apply an economic standard of good business sense, or profitability.”
A few months ago, I evaluated a shareholder resolution presented to Kinder Morgan, Inc.…
Corporate policy makers entering the fray should be guided by two principles, both reflecting the balance of evidence at the intersection of climate science and climate economics. First, mandatory GHG programs should be rejected in favor of voluntary approaches…. Second, voluntary actions by corporations should not go beyond win-win “no regrets” initiatives. Control practices that are uneconomic penalize either consumers or stockholders and politicize the issue of corporate responsibility.”
– Robert Bradley, “Climate Alarmism and Corporate Responsibility.” Electricity Journal, August/September 2000.
Upon the election of Donald Trump, the environmental Left redoubled its effort to politicize business on the climate issue. The subtitle to an early 2017 article in Yale Climate Connections, for example, “Business Leadership on Climate Seen as Key,” read: “With expectations of a much lower federal leadership role on controlling carbon emissions, key sectors of business community seen by some as maintaining momentum.”…