General Motors today became the first automaker to call for a mandatory cap on greenhouse gas emissions and legislation to reduce the threat of global warming. GM (GM) and 11 other industrial behemoths joined a coalition of big corporations and environmental groups that form the United States Climate Action Partnership, or USCAP. Also coming on board were oil giants Shell (RDS-B) and ConocoPhillips (COP), insurance company American International Group (AIG), aluminum maker Alcan (AL), medical instruments company Boston Scientific (BSX), farm equipment maker Deere (DE), Dow Chemical (DOW), pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), financial services firm Marsh (MMC), PepsiCo (PBG), and electronics company Siemens (SI). The Nature Conservancy and the National Wildlife Federation joined USCAP today as well. The addition of a wide cross-section of the nation’s industrial might – with a collective $1.7 trillion in revenues – to the coalition furthers boxes in the Bush administration as Congress prepares to pass legislation to impose a national cap on greenhouse gas emissions followed by some sort of carbon trading market. If your core consistency – the titans of industry – are calling for regulation, it gets a bit difficult to argue that mandatory greenhouse gas reductions will hurt the economy.
GM’s call for a gas cap is a watershed. It, along with the other automakers, have fought to quash efforts to regulate vehicle carbon dioxide emissions in California and elsewhere and have long opposed efforts to raise fuel efficiency standards. How GM will reconcile such campaigns with its new call for laws to do what it has opposed for so many years will be interesting, to say the least. “GM is very pleased to join USCAP to proactively address the concerns and applauds its members for recognizing the important role that technology achieving an economy-wide solution,” said GM chairman Rick Wagoner said in a statement. “A central element as we see it is energy diversity – being able vehicles that can be powered by many different energy sources and advanced to help displace petroleum and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
With this many Fortune 500 companies wanting a seat at the climate change table, a national greenhouse gas law is inevitable. But Democrats and environmentalists will undoubtedly face pressure to water down legislation to make it amenable – and less costly – to corporate America. Set your greenwashing detectors on high.
Green Wombat 
I think your caution about greenwashing is meant to be general, not specific to the USCAP. But just in case, a note on how USCAP works — it’s built around specific calls to action that all the members support, such as cutting emissions 60 to 80 percent by 2050.
And one of the founding principles is that it’s short-sighted to think just in terms of cost. There’s tremendous economic opportunity here, especially for the pioneers.
This post by David Yarnold of Environmental Defense has a little more about the goals in recruiting the new USCAP members: http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/climate411/2007/05/08/uscap_wave2/
I was referring specifically to the corporations, not USCAP. The auto industry continues to fight efforts to regulate tailpipe CO2 – which is, as we all, know a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. And Detroit has been slow to seize opportunities to build and sell hybrids and develop other clean car technologies. The public – and the environmental groups that act in the public interest – will need to make sure USCAP members’ actions match their words.