The White House on Monday tried to rally big business around its climate change agenda, with President Obama making the case that environmental action isn’t just for “tree-huggers” and actually can help boost companies’ profits.
Mr. Obama met with the CEOs of Intel, Johnson & Johnson, The Hershey Company and other top companies at the White House, and each of those firms has agreed to reduce emissions or take other steps to fight climate change. The recruitment of big business to help battle global warming will become more important over the next few weeks as the president seeks to present a unified American front at a landmark United Nations climate conference in Paris.
The White House now has 81 leading U.S. companies publicly supporting a global climate agreement at the Paris meeting, which begins Nov. 30 and represents the last true chance for Mr. Obama to get China, India and other polluters to sign a historic environmental deal. Those 81 companies have signed the administration’s “American Business Act on Climate Pledge,” which calls on them to take specific environmental actions and also signals their support for an international climate deal.
Monday’s voluntary private sector pledges include a promise by Levi Strauss & Co. to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2030; a pledge by Nike to move to 100 percent renewable power in all facilities by 2025; Siemens’ plan to reduce net carbon emissions to zero by 2030; and other specific actions.
Each of those steps, the president said, will help companies make more money.
“Historically, when you start talking about an issue like climate change, the perception is that this is an environmental issue, it’s for tree-huggers, and that hard-headed businesspeople either don’t care about it or see it as a conflict with their bottom lines,” the president said. “And this conversation has confirmed what we’ve known for quite some time, which is that considerations of climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energies are not only not contradictory to their bottom lines, but for these companies, they’re discovering that they can enhance their bottom lines.”
Vice President Joseph R. Biden echoed those sentiments and said U.S. companies can help get a Paris deal across the finish line.
“We are really close to a historic deal. Our most iconic businesses are stepping up at the time that’s occurring,” Mr. Biden said at a White House climate summit.
But there also is deep opposition in the business community to specific actions the administration has taken on climate change. The Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and other leading organizations have been the chief critics of, among other things, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan.
The plan, which forms the basis of Mr. Obama’s broader climate agenda, establishes the first set of nationwide limits on carbon pollution from power plants. Federal data have shown the regulations will drive up electricity prices, and critics fear they will kill jobs and slow economic growth by making energy more expensive.
Leaders in the business community also are battling the administration over other energy issues, including crude oil exports. Mr. Obama has threatened to veto legislation that would allow U.S. oil-and-gas companies to sell fuel overseas, saying Congress should abandon any bills that facilitate more fossil fuel production and instead turn attention to renewable power.
“Exporting oil will not raise gasoline prices. What’s stopping the White House?” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce tweeted Monday, underscoring just one of the deep divisions between the administration and business leaders on energy and environmental issues.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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