By Jeffrey Jones and Euan Rocha
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some U.S. energy executives say Washington is merely paying lip service to growing public pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Instead of railing against regulations that would ultimately add to energy costs, power and gas company executives attending the Reuters Energy Summit in New York this week called for uniform national policies, rather than a state-by-state patchwork of measures.
In addition, they said, the U.S. government should earmark any money generated by new taxes or trading schemes for developing technological solutions for reducing and trapping carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming.
"The biggest thing lacking on the carbon issue right now is federal leadership," said Bruce Williamson, chief executive of independent power generator Dynegy Inc. (DYN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)
"What there tends to be is comments or proposals made, or sound bites that are made" rather than work toward bipartisan solutions, Williamson said.
His company runs both coal- and gas-fired power plants in the U.S. Northeast, Midwest and California.
Siemens Power Generation (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Randy Zwirn said he had the impression that the federal government feels some pressure to come out with legislation.
"However," he said, "I think the pressure they are under is that if they don't act the individual states will."
The Northeast states and California have proposed their own regional strategies to address the climate change issue after the Bush Administration backed away from participation in the international Kyoto protocol on cutting emissions.
Williamson does not advocate doing nothing, but said he doubted there would be any action in the United States until after the 2008 presidential election.
The issue is at the forefront of U.S. politics following dire warnings in former Vice President Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and by groups like the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
President George W. Bush has acknowledged the problem but said he favored voluntary emissions goals and technological solutions rather than regulation.
At the Group of Eight summit on Thursday, he rejected a proposal by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to set specific numerical emission reduction goals at the meeting.
One executive at the Reuters event said she did not want policies requiring the industrial sector to bear all costs of a cap-and-trade system, in which carbon dioxide emitters buy and sell emissions quotas.
"I believe that if we are going to have a truly effective climate change policy in the U.S. it has got to be economy wide," said Martha Wyrsch, chief executive of Spectra Energy Corp.'s (SE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) gas transmission arm. Continued...
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