Green Wombat

Big Oil is looking less monolithic today with the defection of ConocoPhillips (COP) to a coalition of corporations and environmental groups pushing for a mandatory national cap on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. The oil company joins BP (BP) in breaking ranks with the industry over global warming. ConocoPhillips chief Jim Mulva said Wednesday that the company would become a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.  The coalition includes the CEOs of such old-line industrial behemoths as Alcoa (AA), Caterpillar (CAT) DuPont (DD) and General Electric (GE) as well as financial services firm Lehman Brothers (LEH). Other companies in the coalition are utilities PG&E Corp. (PCG), FPL (FPL) and Duke Energy (DUK). Joining them are the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense, World Resources Institute and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. "In addition to taking actions in our own businesses, we believe it is important that business should step forward to help devise practical, equitable and cost-effective approaches to address the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at both a national and international level," Mulva said in a statement. "We believe that a mandatory national framework that links to international programs is most likely to achieve meaningful impact on global greenhouse gas emissions.”

Like his fellow Fortune 500 CEOs, Mulva probably hasn’t been born again green. But he, like a growing number of business leaders, have seen climate change bearing down on Corporate America like a Bengali Typhoon, Category 5. Better to have a seat at the table when it comes to regulating greenhouse gas emissions then be swept away by the whirlwind of global warming legislation now before Congress. That presents a dilemma for environmentalists: their new-found friends in pinstripes can provide the heft to finally get climate change legislation passed, if not enacted by this president. But what’s it going to cost?