Corporations, environmental groups agree on major climate initiatives
The U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) has unveiled a comprehensive and detailed set of integrated policy recommendations for developing legislation that would create an environmentally effective and economically sustainable national climate protection program. The landmark document – “A Blueprint for Legislative Action” – was developed through two years of intensiv...
The U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) has unveiled a comprehensive and detailed set of integrated policy recommendations for developing legislation that would create an environmentally effective and economically sustainable national climate protection program.
The landmark document– “A Blueprint for Legislative Action” – was developed through two years of intensive analysis and consensus-building among 26 corporations and five environmental organizations.
USCAP believes that strong climate legislation is a critical element of any effort to stimulate investment and innovation in low-carbon technologies. The Blueprint provides specific guidelines for the Administration and Congress to enact legislation that both protects the environment and facilitates the necessary transition to a vibrant, low-carbon economy. That includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% of 2005 levels by 2050 through an economy-wide cap-and-trade program.
The Blueprint details steps for creating a mandatory, economy-wide cap-and-trade program, coupled with cost containment measures and complementary policies addressing a federal technology research development and deployment program, coal technology, transportation, and building and energy efficiency.
Highlights from the Blueprint include:
Offsets should be used to help meet compliance obligations and should be environmentally additional, verifiable, permanent, measurable, and enforceable.
The distribution of allowance value should facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy for consumers and businesses, provide capital to support new low- and zero-GHG emitting technologies, and address the need for humans and the environment to adapt to climate change. The Blueprint identifies principles to guide the fair and equitable allocation of allowance value to mitigate costs to consumers and impacted sectors of the economy.
In addition to outlining the design and function of a cap-and-trade system, the Blueprint details complementary measures for coal, technology transformation, transportation, and buildings and energy efficiency that are needed to facilitate rapid technology transformation and to ensure that actual reductions in emissions occur across the economy.
USCAP Members are Alcoa, AIG, Boston Scientific, BP America, Caterpillar, Chrysler, ConocoPhillips, John Deere, Dow, Duke Energy, DuPont, Environmental Defense Fund, Exelon, Ford, FPL Group, GE, GM, Johnson & Johnson, Marsh, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, NRG Energy, PepsiCo, Pew Center On Global Climate Change, PG&E, PNM Resources, Rio Tinto, Shell, Siemens, World Resources Institute, Xerox.
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After almost a decade of uncertainty, the confidence of plant floor managers is soaring. Even with a number of challenges and while implementing new technologies, there is a renewed sense of optimism among plant managers about their business and their future.
The respondents to the 2014 Plant Engineering Salary Survey come from throughout the U.S. and serve a variety of industries, but they are uniform in their optimism about manufacturing. This year’s survey found 79% consider manufacturing a secure career. That’s up from 75% in 2013 and significantly higher than the 63% figure when Plant Engineering first started asking that question a decade ago.