THEREBY PUTTING CONSERVATIVES AT ODDS WITH EVEN THE BUSINESSES THEY CLAIM TO REPRESENT:

Energy Firms Come to Terms With Climate Change (Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, November 25, 2006, Washington Post)

While the political debate over global warming continues, top executives at many of the nation's largest energy companies have accepted the scientific consensus about climate change and see federal regulation to cut greenhouse gas emissions as inevitable.

The Democratic takeover of Congress makes it more likely that the federal government will attempt to regulate emissions. The companies have been hiring new lobbyists who they hope can help fashion a national approach that would avert a patchwork of state plans now in the works. They are also working to change some company practices in anticipation of the regulation.

"We have to deal with greenhouse gases," John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., said in a recent speech at the National Press Club. "From Shell's point of view, the debate is over. When 98 percent of scientists agree, who is Shell to say, 'Let's debate the science'?"

Forced modernization is good policy.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 25, 2006 9:43 AM