BP, Conoco, Caterpillar leave global warming band wagon

THREE major corporations have dropped out of an influential lobby pressing for US global warming legislation in what the Wall Street Journal says is the "latest sign that support for an ambitious bill is melting away".

Oil giants British Petroleum (BP PLC) and ConocoPhillips as well as heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar have quit the three-year-old American Climate Action Partnership, a business-environmental lobby campaigning for capping emissions of greenhouse gases, reports the Wall Street Journal.

This follows last year's departure from the group of several members of the US Chamber of Commerce over the proposed climate bill.

Experts said the decision to withdraw is a sign the politics of climate change is shifting. When US President Barack Obama took office, Congress appeared to have momentum for a bill to cut carbon emissions. But as the economy soured, support waned.

From the start, not all corporate lobby members supported the bill. Caterpillar objected because it would impose tariffs on goods from countries that didn't match US efforts to combat climate change. BP and Conoco opposed it because it didn't treat energy producers equally.

But as long as global warming legislation appeared imminent, companies were willing to go along until late last year when momentum on the bill stalled and more doubted that anything would be passed this year.

"Skepticism is growing in Washington that Congress will pass any major legislation in a contentious election year in which Republicans are expected to gain seats," said the report. "For companies, the shifting winds have reduced pressure to find common ground, leading them to pursue their own, sometimes conflicting interests."

More than 20 other large companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, and General Electric and Honeywell remain in the eco lobby with the Environmental Defence Fund and Natural Resources Defence Council.

(Source: www.schednet.com)