Pacific Gas and Electric Endorses Federal Legislation on Climate Change
by Eric Kane, New York, NY on 10.13.06
At a recent lecture by Al Gore, an audience member, who happened to represent a major North American power company, asked the former Vice President the following question. ‘How can electric companies be expected to address climate change when they have a responsibility to shareholders to produce energy as inexpensively as possible in an effort to maximize profits?’ Gore responded quite calmly by suggesting that power companies should begin by discontinuing their efforts to stymie federal greenhouse gas regulations. He argued that future federal regulations would put all companies on an equal playing and would therefore not jeopardize the industry’s profitability. Although this was a clever response, it seemed unlikely that we would see electric utilities pushing for mandatory legislation on climate change. That was until, Peter Darbee, the head of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) announced his company’s support of California’s recent legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, PG&E officials have been outspoken in promoting the adoption of a federal cap-and-trade policy. This position was echoed by PG&E’s Vice President for Corporate and Environmental Affairs who said “stand-alone programs are imperfect solutions to climate change… a federal program is where we want to be”. If only this were the start of a national trend.
PG&E would probably come out ahead in a national cap/trade program without having to make any changes. I believe California power has the largest or close to largest percentage of renewable power in the country. This would allow them to profit from the others paying to catch up.
It's not obvious to me how a California regulation would help them.
Well it was regulations that made them go bankrupt and it was men like Darbee who brough the companies stock back to full price plus in a matter of two years. (for those of you who play the stock game you missed a potential tripled investment).
Anyways, my dad works for them in the hyrdo division. Thats how i know. But, from what i hear from my dad who is usually pretty cynical that their corperate are pretty stinking smart.
Good news. This example just goes to show that not all companies are against regulations that try to limit greenhouse emissions. There are responsible people and irresponsible people. Just like there are companies led by responsible people and companies led by irresponsible people. We need to support those trying to do the right thing and shun those trying to avoid doing the right thing. It is that simple. The irresponsible ones only care about money. When we stop giving it to them, they will quickly change their tune.