USCAP to go into self-induced coma

The US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), the business-environmentalist lobby group that almost made cap-and-trade happen in the 111th Congress, is going dark at least temporarily.

Jonathan Lash of the USCAP member World Resources Institute told Carbon Control News that members,

"have agreed to keep USCAP in existence for the time being and reassess what is going to be possible."

Apparently with cap-and-trade off the table and internal disagreement about whether to support or fight the EPA's climate rules, USCAP members have reached an impasse as to what to do next. So it's lights out for USCAP for now. USCAP members lobbied hard and successfully for the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, but then saw disenchanted members fall away, including BP America, Caterpillar, ConocoPhillips, Deere & Co., Marsh & McClennan, Xerox. Oddly (or perhaps not), USCAP’s lead lobbyist, Merribel Ayres is married to Dick Ayres, a longtime board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a radical environmental group that has long been a mortal enemy of most of the USCAP members. The NRDC was among the groups that sued the U.S. EPA to impose California’s emission standards on cars nationwide — a lawsuit that led directly to the EPA's new and controversial greenhouse gas regulations. USCAP is little more than a confederacy of dunces (the business members) and sharks (the green members). We look forward to the day when the plug is finally pulled. In the meantime, let's take a walk down memory lane and our campaign against USCAP. Do you remember:

• the Carbon Criminal posters?
• Sen. Barbara Boxer's tirade against the posters?
• Exelon CEO John Rowe receiving his "Carbon Bandit" bobblehead at a Senate hearing?

Steve Milloy——Bio and Archives

Steve Milloy publishes JunkScience.com and GreenHellBlog.com and is the author of Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them

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