Enron’s Global Warming Scam
Aug 8th, 2009 by Rick Arms
Remember Enron, the corrupt firm whose failure should have disproved the myth “too big to fail”, but didn’t? At the time it was the seventh largest corporation. It’s bankruptcy was the largest in history until Lehman Brothers failed. Incidentally, Lehman Brothers was also involved in carbon trading.
Enron owed part of its early success to emissions trading. Basically emissions trading was established as a way for some companies to profit from pollution while allowing some companies to continue to produce the chemicals that can cause acid rain.
Lawrence Solomon, executive director of Energy Probe and Urban Renaissance Institute, is reporting that Enron played a major role in pushing the global warming scam, including establishing the Kyoto Protocals.
Enron had already profited from trading sulfur dioxide credits and saw the potential for even greater profits from trading what would become known as “carbon credits“.
The article is the first in a series of articles about those who seek to profit from what Weather Channel founder John Coleman calls “the greatest scam in history.”
Solomon states, ” The climate-change industry — the scientists, lawyers, consultants, lobbyists and, most importantly, the multinationals that work behind the scenes to cash in on the riches at stake — has emerged as the world’s largest industry. Virtually every resident in the developed world feels the bite of this industry…” which increases the costs of various goods and services.
Enron was an early player beginning early in the administration of Bill Clinton to push for a carbon dioxide trading system. Enron also sought support from environmental groups.
“Between 1994 and 1996, the Enron Foundation donated $1-million to the Nature Conservancy and its Climate Change Project, a leading force for global warming reform, while [Chairman Kenneth] Lay and other individuals associated with Enron donated $1.5-million to environmental groups seeking international controls on carbon dioxide.”
According to Solomon, “Political contributions and Enron-funded analyses flowed freely, all geared to demonstrating a looming global catastrophe if carbon dioxide emissions weren’t curbed. An Enron-funded study that dismissed the notion that calamity could come of global warming, meanwhile, was quietly buried.”
Enron advised the Clinton administration what to do at the Kyoto Japan Conference in 1997.
To improve its chances for success Enron hired former Environmental Protection Agency regulator John Palmisano to become the company’s lead lobbyist as senior director for Environmental Policy and Compliance. Palismano wrote a memo describing the historic corporate achievement that was Kyoto.
“If implemented this agreement will do more to promote Enron’s business than will almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring of the energy and natural-gas industries in Europe and the United States,” Polisano began. “The potential to add incremental gas sales, and additional demand for renewable technology is enormous.”
The memo, entitled “Implications of the Climate Change Agreement in Kyoto & What Transpired,” summarized the achievements that Enron had accomplished. “I do not think it is possible to overestimate the importance of this year in shaping every aspect of this agreement,” he wrote. He cited three issues of specific importance to Enron in the climate-change debate: the rules governing emissions trading, the rules governing transfers of emission reduction rights between countries, and the rules governing a gargantuan clean energy fund.
Polisano’s memo expressed satisfaction bordering on amazement at Enron’s successes. The rules governing transfers of emission rights “is exactly what I have been lobbying for and it seems like we won. The clean development fund will be a mechanism for funding renewable projects. Again we won …. The endorsement of emissions trading was another victory for us.”
“Enron now has excellent credentials with many ‘green’ interests including Greenpeace, WWF [World Wildlife Fund], NRDC [Natural Resources Defense Council], German Watch, the U.S. Climate Action Network, the European Climate Action Network, Ozone Action, WRI [World Resources Institute] and Worldwatch. This position should be increasingly cultivated and capitalized on (monetized),” Polisano explained.
Those who believe in Global Warming like to claim that they are opposed by corporate interests in the form of the energy companies. They neglect to mention that the battle isn’t against corporations, it is between different groups of corporations. The energy companies are attempting to continue providing energy to consumers. Companies on the other side are merely attempting to create a financial opportunity for themselves as financial parasites who provide nothing to anyone and get rich in return.
Democrats often criticize Republicans for being too close to business. Democrats are just as close to business. They simply favor different businesses.
As William O’Keefe, chief executive officer of the Marshall Institute, puts it: “The American people have had enough of convoluted, indecipherable financial schemes and the opportunists who exploit them. The public is understandably angry about Wall Street’s exploitation of Main Street, and yet our political leaders are setting the stage for another complex trading market, ripe for corruption. The future Enrons and Bernie Madoffs of the world would like nothing better than to see the U.S. impose a new market for carbon emission trading.”
Still doesnt stop the fact that we were and still are polluting the only planet we inhabit and that we even know of that will support life. Everything can and most likely will be exploited. Just look at all the poor christians that believe that the Earth was built in 7 days and someone died and was resurrected 3 days later or that the Earth suffered a great flood and all the animals were put on a Carnival ship. Just because someone makes money from it doesnt discredit it. Science is really still debating Global Warming. I still believe that we should take care of the only planet we have.
There are ways humans may be adversely affecting the planet, but the production of CO2 isn’t one of them. Focusing on this non-problem diverts attention from significant problems such as the production of black soot in Asia.
Climate change has been extensively researched and the overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that the observed modern day global warming is unprecedented and is very likely caused by humans. Although there is little serious debate between climate experts, many in the general public still think that these scientists are unsure about climate change and the role that humans have played in modern day global warming. The Website above summarizes some of the key research that has led scientists to their overwhelming consensus while also addressing some of the unfounded claims by climate change skeptics and denialists.
The only plausible explanation is that today’s warming is primarily due to human activities. The increase in greenhouse emissions can easily account for this warming. There is robust evidence for the man-made global warming. There are no other known sources of warming that can explain the observed modern climate change. People that claim there is no warming or that the warming is not caused by humans have offered no credible alternate hypotheses. Yes, these folks make claims but none of the claims has stood up to scientific scrutiny.
Because I see/hear much disinformation from well-intentioned folks, I feel it is my duty to try to educate people on this very important matter. Unfortunately, it is an uphill battle because most of the real science is discussed in hard-to-read scientific journals and most of the bad science is easily accessible on Web pages, blogs, and other forms of mass media. Worse, there are political organizations such as The Heartland Institute that present themselves as scientific organizations but these organizations are directly and indirectly funded by the fossil fuel industry and others that stand to lose if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.
[...] A Global Goring » Enron’s Global Warming Scam [...]
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Margaret
http://grantsforeducation.info
what’s happening, I’ve recently found what I was looking for on ricksweblog.ebidz.biz site so far it look like a superb penny stock pick site that I saw somewhere a while back. handball usually i’m busy and I work from home so I will check back.
Hi all, I’m Allison and one of two primary caregivers for my 73-year-old mother, who was diagnosed two days ago with a recurrence of her ovarian cancer. She was initially diagnosed in October 2007, had surgery followed by chemotherapy from November 2007 - May 2008 and was declared cancer free in July 2008. Now it’s back.
I’ll be hanging out mostly at blogs not forums..I did joined here so will share my thoughts soon.
Hi everybody I’m John just introducing myself here to the room ..okay let’s let it rip lol.By the way you take donations?
Any good penny stock pick ?
Closely I think that this despatch is something which insufficiency more notice of your readers.
fluconazole yeast 96264 besked hjemmeside navn follutein lbsjd greenstone alprazolam tab 2mg :[[ ditophal over night ctlf cheap ergotamine no prescription 6949
And you in the long run win to a consensus, where you manoeuvre a sense of what unusually ought to be done, and then they give ground it to me and then I unholster it. I utilizing a instrument delineate it in the drift, the philosophical sense.
But second I have befall to conjecture that the in the main people is an riddle, a harmless problem that is made grave via our own irate effort to interpret it as however it had an underlying truth.
But in the present climate I suffer with befall to assume trust to that the whole people is an mystery, a benign mystery that is made terrible by our own irate bid to spell out it as despite the fact that it had an underlying truth.
But second I procure befall to assume trust to that the total out of sight is an enigma, a benign mystery that is made terrible via our own fanatical effort to take to mean it as despite the fact that it had an underlying truth.