American corporations are increasingly calling for action on global warming, sensing a business opportunity in cutting greenhouse gases while hoping to shape regulations they believe are inevitable.
Bucking the Bush administration's position that tougher rules would harm the U.S. economy, Fortune 500 companies including General Electric Co., Duke Energy Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in recent months have championed stronger government measures to reduce industrial releases of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas that scientists have linked to rising temperatures and sea levels.
This shift in corporate thinking was on display at a congressional hearing last week, where executives from large companies including DuPont Co., United Technologies Corp. and Baxter International Inc. described how they were getting an early start on reducing greenhouse gas emissions -- something they believe they would be required to do sooner or later.
"People increasingly will believe that greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced and that actions should begin today to prepare for that eventuality," James Rogers, the chairman of power generator Cinergy Corp., told the House Science Committee on Wednesday. Rogers now advocates a national program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The number of companies involved remains small, but it is growing, particularly in the energy sector, and is emerging as a new dynamic in the debate over the future of America's global warming policies. The U.S., the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, was the only major developed nation other than Australia to reject the Kyoto Protocol, an international pact to cut emissions to about 5% below 1990 levels by 2012.
Although their rhetoric is rife with references to protecting planet Earth, some of the corporations acknowledge that their newfound focus on global warming is driven by opportunity for profit. Duke Energy would like to build a new nuclear power plant, a type of electricity generation that does not emit greenhouse gases, for instance, while GE wants to expand sales of wind power turbines and pollution-control equipment.
"We believe we can help improve the environment and make money doing it," GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt said last month in a speech at George Washington University that attracted widespread notice. "We see that green is green."
