Fighting global warming will put huge dent in corporate wallets
June 18, 2009 by Tom GuayPosted in: Cost Cutting, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, News, Waste & Pollution
Once you see the price tag for taming global warming, it’s clear why business leaders are worried. It’s gonna hurt when the feds regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The price tag: $92.8 billion! That’s the warning coming from a new analysis of what a GHG cap-and-trade program will cost companies.
Consultants Trucost and the nonprofit group, the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute, project that the costs of buying all the GHG emission credits needed to operate under a cap-and-trade system would devastate the earnings potential of many companies.
The two groups reviewed likely costs on the companies listed in the S&P 500 index and found financial impacts vary widely. Some companies may see earnings potential drop 117% while others would suffer only 1% setbacks.
The utility sector would be hit hardest because it is the single largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most prevalent GHG emission. Companies that buy power from these coal-fired power producers would see higher electric bills as utilities try to pass on these regulatory costs.
The analysis bases these predictions on the likely scenario that a GHG credit will sell for $28.24 a ton in 2012.
Trucost is also developing a product that helps state and local governments identify which companies and facilities to target for GHG control rules. Click here for details on its Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA).
Tags: cap-and-trade, GHG emissions, global warming, Trucost
GreenandMore.com
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June 18th, 2009 at 11:13 am
I live in Northern Illinois. This past winter and summer has been consistently colder than the last 20 years.
This entire movement is nothing more than an attack on our Freedoms. When are people going to learn Money = Freedom = Liberty. Without the ability to make money on your own, and do with it what you please, you have no Freedom. Which is ultimately what this is all about: Control and Power. Everyone needs to be aware that Chicken Little has a motive.
-Jim
June 25th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
You’re right-on, commenter Jim.
This ‘climate change’ and ‘green’ b.s. is nothing more than a vehicle to redistribute wealth, and to gain more governmental control over ‘the masses’.
Even if global warming were caused by humans (a debate that IS NOT over, contrary to Prophet Gore), what in the hell does it matter if we’re all living in a third-world country and under the complete control of Big Brother? Hello?? 1984, anyone?
I’m so sick of this Green Cult I could vomit.
September 3rd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Apparently Joe is just concerned with Joe and no one else. Wake up, JOE! If you want to live in a third world country, please do so now. You obviously take the freedoms you have now for granted. Preserving the environment for this and future generations is all of our responsibilities.