A Changing Policy Climate
What a difference a year can make. In twelve months the center of gravity has strikingly shifted in the debate over U.S. climate change policy. Eleven states have developed mandatory greenhouse gas limits. More corporations are calling for federal policy. And numerous studies and media stories, including the report this month from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore’s movie, are tipping the scale of public opinion. But the biggest difference is in Congress. Since January, Capitol Hill has been inundated with a wave of climate bills. At this point, a federal climate policy seems inevitable. That’s certainly what many electric power company senior executives think. More than 80 percent of those polled in CERA’s most recent executive power survey expect a mandatory carbon policy by 2015.