Twelve major U.S. companies delivered an open letter to the U.S. Senate this week urging swift action on climate change legislation.
In the letter, Bumble Bee Foods, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), DuPont (NYSE: DD), FPL Group (NYSE: FPL), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), HP (NYSE: HPQ), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), JohnsonDiversey, Levi Strauss & Co., Nike (NYSE: NKE), PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG) and Xanterra Parks and Resorts said: “A rapidly changing climate is reshaping the American landscape and poses a long-term threat to our nation’s economy and to our children’s future… We…urge the Senate to pass a bill this year that will reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases…and jumpstart a clean energy economy….”
The signatory companies said they have begun changing their business practices to measurably reduce their emissions of carbon pollution. Such efforts, they point out in their letter, have also benefited their bottom lines. “In our experience, these changes have not only been good for the climate, they’ve been good for business,” the companies said.
“Corporate leaders understand that we need a legislative framework to spur technological innovation and jumpstart a clean energy economy,” said WWF President and CEO Carter Roberts. “As these business leaders explained in their letter to the Senate, addressing climate change is in America’s economic interests–today and for future generations. I urge the Senate to heed their call to pass meaningful climate legislation this year.”
According to the recently released report Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, prepared by 13 federal science agencies, climate change is already having a direct and negative effect on the American people, impacting water, energy, transportation, agriculture, ecosystems, and human health all across the nation. Every region of the country is experiencing significant, adverse impacts from climate change including more severe droughts, floods, heat waves and wildfires–and these impacts will worsen during the course of the century if action is not taken to slow climate change.
2009 will be a critical year in global efforts to fight climate change. Passage of U.S. legislation is a key step towards gaining agreement from all nations to reduce global emissions during international climate negotiations set for December in Copenhagen. If the Senate fails to act, a meaningful global agreement will likely be hard to reach.
Passage of climate legislation remains a top priority for the Obama Administration. In June, the House of Representatives approved the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which places a national limit on greenhouse gas pollution while setting up a market-based framework to bring down emissions in an economically efficient manner.
Similar legislation is expected to be introduced in the Senate in the coming weeks and likely will be voted on later in the Fall.
In Related News…
A coalition of environmental, labor, veterans and religious groups formally launched a national lobbying campaign Tuesday aimed at mobilizing grass-roots support for passage of a Senate climate bill this fall.
Read the Washington Post report at the link below.
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