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12/12/1997, Enron Kyoto memo from John Palmisano, "This agreement will be good for Enron stock!" p.3
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5/30/2009, "Lawrence Solomon: Enron's other secret (Corporatism and Climate Change)," Financial Post (original pdf)
"In the climate-change debate, the companies on the 'environmental' side have the most to gain. "
"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, often unknowingly, through the hidden surcharges on their food bills, their gas and electricity rates, their gasoline purchases, their automobiles, their garbage collection, their insurance, their computers purchases, their hotels, their purchases of just about every good and service, in fact,
- and finally, their taxes to governments at all levels.
- or who is aiding and abetting the profiteers.
- Enron, a pioneer in the climate-change industry.
- U.S. government's $20-billion a year emissions commodity market.
To magnify the leverage of their political lobbying, Enron also worked the 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 Lay and other individuals associated with Enron donated $1.5-million to environmental groups seeking international controls on carbon dioxide.
The intense lobbying paid off. Lay became a member of president Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development, as well as his friend and advisor. In the summer of 1997, prior to global warming meetings in Kyoto, Japan, Clinton sought Lay's advice in White House discussions. The fruits of Enron's efforts came soon after, with the signing of the Kyoto Protocol.
An internal Enron memo, sent from Kyoto by John Palmisano, a former Environmental Protection Agency regulator who had become Enron's lead lobbyist as senior director for Environmental Policy and Compliance, describes
- the historic corporate achievement that was Kyoto.
- gas sales, and additional demand for renewable technology is enormous."
- the biggest money plays:
- the rules governing emissions trading,
- the rules governing transfers of emission reduction rights between countries, and
- the rules governing a gargantuan clean energy fund.
Palmisano's hard work had paid off, thanks to the many allies Enron had enlisted. Deserving special emphasis was the environmental community, whose endorsement was
- crucial to Enron's achievements at Kyoto.
- should be increasingly cultivated and capitalized on (monetized)," Polisano explained.
Palmisano's three-page memo from Kyoto, which suggested that the Kyoto Protocol could work out even better than he had expected, stressed the need for urgency to capitalize on the opportunities that would now be on offer: "I now predict ratification within three years. I predict business opportunities within 18 months. I predict this agreement will have very significant influences on the energy sector within OECD and transitional economies and will accelerate renewable markets in developing countries.
The groundwork had been laid well, not least by entering into relationships with scientists who, Enron expected, would further its cause (James Hansen, the scientist who more than any other is responsible for bringing the possibility of climate-change catastrophe to the public, was among the scientists Enron commissioned). Just as shrewdly, Enron saw the importance in silencing the scientists who didn't accept the alarmism that had driven the Kyoto Protocol. In a 1998 letter, Enron CEO Ken Lay, among others, asked president Clinton to appoint a bi-partisan "Blue-Ribbon Commission" designed to
- pronounce on the science and,
- in effect, marginalize the skeptics.
- or even that their employment has been terminated.
- biggest money interest of all in the climate change debate lies with
- those poised to cash in on the climate-change policies
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original Financial Post text copied from CampaignforLiberty.com
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5/29/2002, "Business or Lobbyist?" Paul Georgia, National Review
"In 1997, the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) Ralph Cavanagh credited Enron with helping to defeat the newly Republican 104th Congress's attempt to reform the nation's draconian environmental laws.
"When the infant 104th Congress went to town on the nation's environmental laws, we appealed for help from corporate community," Cavanagh said. "Many former friends were conspicuously silent. Ken Lay was [an] extraordinarily honorable — and initially lonely — exception, and he is part of the reason why the bad guys ultimately failed at most of what they attempted....On environmental stewardship, our experience is that you can trust Enron." In April 2000,
- NRDC listed Enron as one of several "progressive companies"
- that "support responsible global warming policy."
- trying to convince U.S. corporations that being green is good for business,
- that supporting
- the eco-activist's
- anti-property,
- anti-free enterprise,
- pro-regulatory
agenda increases shareholder value."...(parags. 4-6)
via Tom Nelson
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