It’s time for U.S. companies to “show up” on Capitol Hill and start encouraging lawmakers to back climate legislation that the companies profess to support. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a leading voice on climate action, delivered that message a number of weeks ago via The Washington Post.
With few signs that big business was, in fact, showing up, Whitehouse recently told Politico’s Anthony Adragna, “If anybody in corporate America actually wants to show up and be heard in a positive way on a climate bill, basically, they better get off their rear end right now and let people know because the clock is running out.”
Were any of the senator’s Republican colleagues, Adragna asked, “sincerely interested in working with you on carbon pricing,” a policy that Whitehouse has championed. He replied that some were but that the “political calculus they are looking at has not changed.” That is, that “the fossil fuel sector of corporate America remains aggressively determined to punish anyone who crosses them and the rest of corporate America--despite a lot of good behavior in their corporate precincts and a lot of very sweet public statements to consumers, investors and so forth--have not put climate on their political agenda in Congress. At all.”
The trade associations, Whitehouse maintained, either are “against good climate policy or don’t have it as a priority. He cited the American Beverage Association and TechNet, which represents Silicon Valley firms. A year ago, he said, TechNet “didn’t even mention climate change in their congressional pitch materials, and this year they gave it a passing mention.
“So the message that my Republican friends are getting from their corporate clientele is resounding: We don’t care, unless we do, in which case we’re against you doing anything. So they’re still captured in the cage of the fossil fuel industry and don’t see a safe exit.”
One policy that is receiving a more positive response, said Whitehouse, is carbon capture and sequestration. And he believes that the best opportunity for climate action this year is probably the infrastructure initiative that the Biden administration and Congress are debating.
While most corporate lobbyists have taken a go-slow approach, there are at least some signs of progress. The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) organized a statement by 42 leading U.S. companies urging the Biden administration and Congress to work together to enact ambitious, durable, and bipartisan climate policies. As C2ES put it, “The companies pointed to the grave risks presented by climate change, but also the economic benefits of tackling it—creating jobs, driving growth, and strengthening U.S. competitiveness.”
Signers included Amazon, Bank of America, DuPont, Edison International, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Google, LafargeHolcim, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Unilever United States, and Walmart. Collectively, the 42 companies have nearly 5 million employees and generate $3 trillion in annual revenues.
“Creating a net-zero economy also requires strong, sustained leadership from Washington,” said C2ES President Bob Perciasepe. “That’s what these companies are calling for. They see this as a critical moment, and they’re pledging to work with the new administration and Congress to enact ambitious climate policy.”
Some American companies are not waiting for Congress to act. They feel they don’t have that luxury as they face pressure on multiple fronts. “Multinationals like Ford, for example, must meet climate standards set by China and Europe,” Politico’s Lorraine Woellert reported May 17.
“Automakers look at the rest of the world and have realized the U.S. has been lagging, and they’ve charged ahead knowing that the U.S. has to catch up,” Cox Automotive executive analyst Michelle Krebs told Woellert. “If you do business around the world, you have to meet the regulations and demands in those markets, too.” Ford made headlines recently with its unveiling of an electric-powered F-150 pickup, the perennial sales leader among U.S.-made vehicles.
The Partnership for Responsible Growth continues to make the rounds on Capitol Hill explaining the benefits of carbon pricing in the belief that the opportunity to make it part of national policy is approaching. Our team includes former Republican Congressman Francis Rooney (FL), who authored carbon tax legislation and is now a member of our Advisory Board.
“We need to have a strong bill in Congress if we're going to solve the climate crisis,” Whitehouse told The Post. “So, the corporate America world not bothering to show up in Congress on climate is really consequential. And thankfully, that is beginning to change, just beginning.”