Climate Leadership Council disappoints

Carbon tax needs to stimulate market demand. The CLC’s approach guts climate regulation but doesn’t incentivize change.

It was disappointing to see the Climate Leadership Council’s (CLC) plan for dealing with the climate crisis. The group is made up of former senior members of recent Republican administrations, some with ties to the oil industry. When the group announced its formation, it seemed like the GOP had developed some conscience and understanding about pollution and that senior leaders were offering ideas to help. In reality, though, the plan looks like a bait and switch perpetrated by former high-level government officials and others who ought to know better.

Some of the former officials and founders of the CLC include James A. Baker, III, G.H.W. Bush’s Chief of Staff and Secretary of State, as well as George P. Schultz who was Secretary of the Treasury under Richard Nixon, and Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan.

Perhaps not surprisingly, of the eleven founding corporate members, four are oilcompanies including BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Total. General Motors is also listed as a founder. Disappointingly, former U.S. Energy Secretary in the Obama administration and Nobel Prize winner in Physics (1997), Steven Chu is listed as a founding member as are Stephen Hawking, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Lawrence Summers an economist and former Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton and president of Harvard.