"CEOs plead for mandatory emissions caps"

Chief executives of 10 major corporations urged Congress on Monday to require limits on greenhouse gases this year, contending voluntary efforts to combat climate change are inadequate.

The call for immediate action came on the eve of President Bush ‘s State of the Union address in which he is expected to reiterate that the industry on its own is making progress in curtailing the growth of heat-trapping emissions without the need of government intervention.

"We can and must take prompt action to establish a coordinated, economy-wide market-driven approach to climate protection," the executives, part of a coalition called the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, said in a letter to the president.

Members of the group include chief executives of Alcoa Inc., BP America Inc., DuPont Co., Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co., and Duke Energy Corp.

Many of the companies already have voluntarily moved to curb greenhouse emissions, they said. But the executives also said they do not believe voluntary efforts will suffice.

Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, said the group intends to push the issue in Congress, urging lawmakers to address climate change as soon as possible. She said she expects other major corporations to join in the call.

In the letter, the executives urged Congress to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The legislation should cut these releases 10 percent below today‘s levels within a decade and at least 60 percent by 2050, according to the action plan. Releases of carbon dioxide, the principal heat-trapping gas, has been increasing an average of 1 percent a year.

The first days of the new Democratic-controlled Congress have seen a rush of legislation introduced to address climate change, all of which have some variation of a cap-and-trade approach to dealing with climate change.

Essentially such a mechanism would have mandatory limits of greenhouse gas emissions, but would allow companies to trade emission credits to reduce the cost. Companies that can‘t meet the cap could purchase credits from those that exceed them or in some case from a government auction.
______________________

Note: I don't think it makes sense for companies (or people) to be able to "buy" the right the pollute - but it's interesting that CEOs are demanding action.

I also noted that the AP article only used the term "climate change" - instead of "global warming" (I tried googling the news article with "10 corporations, global warming" and nothing came up). Some people still think that that is some kind of important distinction - even if what is happening is that the overall temperature of the earth and the atmosphere is rising - giving way to climate disruptions.