An Inconvenient Truth for the GOP

By Jonathan Stein
Mother Jones
Wed April 22, 2009

Republican lawmakers who decry climate change legislation as catastrophic for American businesses were left in the lurch on Wednesday afternoon—by reps of American businesses. The split came at a hearing conducted by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the powerful House energy and commerce committee, who has promised to deliver comprehensive climate change by Memorial Day. In March, he released a sweeping draft bill that received accolades from the environmental community and the Obama administration. Since January, he has held 41 days of hearings with 61 witnesses. This week, in a set of marathon hearings, Waxman will hear from 67 more.

Corporate America certainly sees the train coming down the tracks.

After top Obama administration officials appeared before Waxman's committee on Wednesday morning, voicing strong support for a bill that would boost renewable energy development, create green jobs, and reduce global warming emissions, a panel of corporate leaders were nearly as enthusiastic—even as committee Republicans blasted the legislation as a prescription for economic disaster.

While Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, assailed the bill as "an assault on the middle class," Meg McDonald, director of global issues for Alcoa, expressed her company's "support for comprehensive climate change legislation this year." Climate change, she said, requires "immediate action" from "every sector of society."

McDonald was echoed by Charles Holliday, chairman and one-time CEO of DuPont. "I firmly believe this is an opportunity for American industry to reinvent itself," he said. "We are fundamentally behind this approach."

(More here.)