Texaco quits GCC

From: Michele Gale-Sinex (mgs@rprogress.org)
Date: Wed Mar 01 2000 - 17:05:00 EST


Howdy, all--

The Global Climate Coalition, a leading disinformation cabal on global
climate change, has lost another Fortune 500 member.

I don't suppose I need to remind anyone here that over 2,500 of the world's
leading climate scientists, including a full panel of NSF scientists, have
concluded that global climate change is real and that human activities
(particularly the rapid accumulation of human-produced greenhouse gases)
are affecting the world's climate patterns.

Nor that 2,500 of the US's leading economists, including 8 Nobel laureates,
have affirmed that global climate change is important, that preventive
measures are justified, and that the U.S. can most efficiently implement
climate policies through market-based mechanisms such as carbon taxes or
the auction of emissions permits. The revenues generated can be used to
reduce the deficit, lower existing taxes, or accomplish other ends, while
slowing climate change.
http://www.rprogress.org/pubs/ecstat.html

Very soon I'll be posting some information on Redefining Progress's work on
global climate change, including impacts on consumers, labor, agriculture,
and others, and policy approaches that provide both economic and
environmental dividents. We've got 8 new research papers, three on response
to global climate change, and five on environmental tax shifting.

In the meantime, keep the carbon in the ground, a song in your heart, and
your charge card locked up. :^)

peace
misha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/03/01/tex.climate/index.html

                   Texaco quits global warming group

                   March 1, 2000
                   Web posted at: 2:57 a.m. EST (0757 GMT)

                   WASHINGTON (CNN) --The industry
                   group that led the fight against a treaty to
                   curb global warming has lost another
                   member.

                   Texaco has quit the Global Climate
                   Coalition (GCC). The oil giant is the third
                   Fortune 500 to quit the group in recent
                   months, joining Ford and Daimler/Chrysler.

                   The GCC has been an aggressive critic of
                   scientific studies linking global warming to
                   emissions from fossil fuels.

                   The group has sponsored scientific studies, public
speaking tours and advertising
                   campaigns to challenge reports that suggest warming
could be a major economic and environmental
problem for the world in the coming century.

                   The GCC is made up of electric utilities, coal and oil
companies, auto and
                   petrochemical manufacturers and related trade associations.

                   However, support for the group has been fading in recent
years. BP/Amoco, Royal
                   Dutch Shell and Dow Chemical have all quit the group
since 1997. Texaco quit last
                   Friday.

                   Environmentalists are celebrating Texaco's announcement.

                   "It's virtually over for the Global Climate Coalition,"
said John Passacantando of the
                   environmental group Ozone Action. "This has been the
lead organization running the misinformation campaign on global
warming."

                   Other observers say decisions like Texaco's could move
the climate debate towards middle ground.

                   GCC officials are downplaying the defections. The group
has changed its strategy to focus on lobbying the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol, an agreement that, if ratified, would
                   commit the world's industrialized nations to reducing
their emissions of the gases
                   linked to global warming.

                   The GCC says that in the U.S., the world's biggest
producer of greenhouse gases, the treaty could threaten up to
2-and-a- half million jobs.

                   The treaty is currently in limbo and most U.S. Senators
say they would vote against ratifying the agreement.

                                CNN Correspondent Natalie Pawelski
contributed to this report

Michele Gale-Sinex
Communications Director
Redefining Progress
One Kearny St., fourth floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
Phone: 415-781-1191 x305
Fax: 415-781-1198
http://www.rprogress.org

As the Zen master said to the hot dog vendor,
"Make me one with everything."

To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".

All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Mar 12 2000 - 14:00:32 EST