DuPont's Actions Compared to Enron
DuPont's claim of Environmental Altruism
DuPont's Actions Compared to Enron
By EPW Blog
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Below is a Fact of the Day on DuPont.
DuPont claims it joined the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) to support global warming cap-and-trade legislation out of concern for the Earth's climate.
Fact: DuPont's claims of environmental altruism have been questioned. According to the Wall Street Journal on January 26, 2007, "DuPont has been plunging into biofuels, the use of which would soar under a [mandatory C02] cap." In addition, potential DuPont carbon credits could have a market value of roughly $470 million per year. The Wall Street Journal called the corporations a "pack of climate profiteers."
CEI president Fred Smith explained that DuPont stands to benefit under even the most modest cap-and-trade proposals. "DuPont would realize more than a 900 percent return on investment," Smith said during a Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) hearing on February 13, 2007.
Senator Kit Bond noted the similarities between corporations clamoring for a cap-and-trade system and the failed energy giant Enron.
"This is not the first time that industry has worked alongside environmentalists. Indeed, this is not even the first time that some in industry have thrown their support toward carbon caps. Indeed, we need only think back to Clinton administration meetings with Enron's Ken Lay over Kyoto treaty negotiations," Senator Bond said during the February 13, 2007 hearing.
"This Washington Post article 'Enron Also Courted Democrats: Chairman Pushed Firm's Agenda With Clinton White House' chronicled how, '[i]n a White House meeting in 1997...Lay urged President Clinton and Vice President Gore to back a market-based approach to the problem of global warming - a strategy that a later Enron memo makes clear would be "good for Enron stock,"'" Senator Bond explained.
"This text bubble details why Enron officials later expressed elation at the binding carbon caps in the Kyoto protocol. According to the Washington Post: 'an internal [Enron] memo said the Kyoto agreement, if implemented, would "do more to promote Enron's business than almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States,"'" Senator Bond added.
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