Energy companies split over climate legislation

The debate over climate-change legislation has bene primarily between environmentalists and energy companies, but the latter have been divided on details, and remain so. "Producers of natural gas are battling their erstwhile allies, the oil companies. Electrical utilities are fighting among themselves over the use of coal versus wind power or other renewable energy," John Broder and Jad Mouwad of The New York Times write. "Coal companies are battling natural gas firms over which should be used to produce electricity. And the renewable power industry is elbowing for advantage against all of them."

Supporters of climate-change legislation say the division among energy companies may help pass a bill. "It’s much harder to pass clean-energy legislation when big oil and other energy interests are united in their opposition,” Daniel J. Weiss, climate policy director at the liberal Center for American Progress, told the Times. "The companies that recognize the economic benefits in the bill can help bring along their political supporters."

Energy companies are doing everything from releasing studies about $5-a-gallon gasoline and high energy prices resulting from cap-and-trade legislation to funding protests and advertising campaigns against the bill. Others like Excelon have left the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of the group's opposition to climate change. The Center for Responsive Politics says energy producers spent more than $200 million in Washington lobbying efforts in the first half of the year, up from $174 million last year.

“The fact that the lobbying is so fast and so furious is a positive sign that this thing is moving along,” Mark Brownstein, a managing director at the Environmental Defense Fund, tells the reporters. “The fact that everyone is rushing to Washington tells you people believe it is real.” But still not everyone believes climate change is real. Broder and Mouwad quote Massey Energy President Don Blankenship, who refers to global warming as a hoax and Ponzi scheme: "A lot of coal-using utilities seem to be on the wrong side of this issue. How can they be so confident that man is changing the world climate?" (Read more)