Corporate America is staking out a climate change lobbying position ahead of the November election.
Business Roundtable, a Washington group that comprises the CEOs of leading U.S. companies, is lending support for a price on carbon as part of new climate policy principles, advocating market-based ways to address climate change instead of heavy-handed government regulations.
The group includes CEOs across various industries, such as oil majors like Exxon Mobil Corp., automakers like General Motors, retailers like Walmart, utilities like Duke Energy, and tech giants like Microsoft. The climate policy principles, unveiled Wednesday, say the U.S. must slash greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% below 2005 levels by 2050.
That isn’t as ambitious as the net-zero emissions by 2050 target Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has set out and Democratic lawmakers have committed to. Some of Business Roundtable’s member companies, too, have pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 or well before.
Despite broadly backing carbon pricing, the CEOs shy away from endorsing a specific policy such as a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system. Instead, the principles say the U.S. should price carbon “where environmentally and economically effective and administratively feasible.”
The CEOs also suggest they could support taxing imports of carbon-intensive products from other countries if the United States does put a price on carbon, stressing the need to preserve the competitiveness of U.S. businesses. In addition, the CEOs suggest a carbon price could make some federal and state climate mandates “duplicative, inefficient, or counterproductive.”
Beyond carbon pricing, the CEOs also call for the U.S. to at least double funding levels for clean energy innovation and climate research.
