All Over But The Shouting

Today's EEI newsletter reports:

Shell Oil President Supports 'Cap and Trade' Global Emissions Scheme
Shell Oil President John Hofmeister, in an interview on C-SPAN carried by E&E News PM, spoke of the firm's support for a national – or worldwide - climate change initiative that would include cap-and-trade schemes for emissions. Stressing that for Shell Oil, the climate change "debate is over," Hofmeister said: "We think cap and trade is possible. The information management system that supports a cap and trade is available. The electronics are there. We think a national cap and trade system would be a good idea. It could also become, ultimately, a global cap and trade system because just as we trade oil globally we could probably trade carbon globally. A carbon tax probably fits in there somewhere, but, again, if it's going to be a tax, the one request we would make, as a company, is that it be a level playing field so that all would be participating in it, not just a few."
E&E News PM , Oct. 25.



When Shell Oil says that the climate change debate is over, you know that the fat lady has sung. Now, carbon-based businesses are simply trying, as the above article shows, to control their landing. Note, also, the willingness to accept a carbon tax.

I'm not quite as wild about a global cap and trade system, if it would allow people to continue to pollute the air here in exchange for planting some trees in India, although I suppose that, over the long haul (which we don't have, which is why I don't like this idea) it's all one planet and eliminating carbon is eliminating carbon.

What's interesting to me is how there was this huge house of cards, ready to come down almost immediately once someone took the first big step. Time from release of An Inconvenient Truth to California's legislation: Approximately 3 months.

Time from California's legislation until Shell Oil announced the climate change debate to be over: Less than two months.