Former Bush Environmental Expert To Speak At Bank of America, Merrill Lynch-Sponsored Conference

Copenhagen with a different layout. Image credit:NextSmallThings, layout by CoolChaser.

Bankers are tempted for some hot climate action. Maybe not so hot. James L. Connaughton, former Chair of Bush's Council on Environmental Quaity and Director of the [Bush] White House Office of Environmental Policy...currently Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Public and Environmental Colicy at Constellation Energy (NYSE:CEG) got top billing at a "power leader" gathering.

News Blaze reported:

Constellation Energy Executive Vice President James Connaughton to Present at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2009 Power & Gas Leaders Conference

Financial wizards in attendance may be looking for places to invest whatever bailout money remains. Add a little networking, get the latest on the upcoming climate conference in Denmark, and they'll be good to go.

Perhaps Nancy Sutley, Current Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, (pictured here) was not available?

Image credit:White House.

Still, they must have noticed that China and the U.S. Could Fix Climate -- If Leaders Let Them: Duke Energy CEO at Climate Week NY°C and that Low-Carbon Goods And Services Revenues Top Aerospace & Defense, Globally

For anyone who has forgotten I peeked down the memory hole, saw the House Oversight Committee archives ,and clipped this:

The White House played a major role in crafting the August 2003 EPA legal opinion disavowing authority to regulate greenhouse gases. CEQ Chairman James Connaughton personally edited the draft legal opinion. When an EPA draft quoted the National Academy of Science conclusion that "the changes observed over the last several decades are likely mostly due to human activities," CEQ objected because "the above quotes are unnecessary and extremely harmful to the legal case being made." The first line of another internal CEQ document transmitting comments on the draft EPA legal opinion reads: "Vulnerability: science." The final opinion incorporating the White House edits was rejected by the Supreme Court in April 2007 in Massachusetts v. EPA.

Note: T\to their credit, Constellation has a decent official perspective on US Greenhouse Gas Reduction Policy (pdf file).

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