Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this is a ``Time to Wake Up'' good news-bad news speech. The good news from last week is on business community support for carbon pricing. What is carbon pricing? Well, remember that IMF--the International Monetary Fund--pegs the fossil fuel subsidy in the United States at more than $600 billion per year, so the energy market is dramatically tilted to favor fossil fuels. Carbon pricing helps set that right, helps make an even playing field. It is economics 101. And carbon pricing makes a lot of sense. What happened last week? The Business Roundtable, made up of all of these giant American corporations and more--these are the top 50 that I could fit on this chart, but there are 200 of them--came out in support of carbon pricing. Their report warned that the consequences of climate change for global prosperity and socioeconomic well-being are significant. The world simply cannot afford the costs of inaction. The Business Roundtable's report went on to urge companies to ``align policy goals and [greenhouse gas] emissions reduction targets with scientific evidence.'' Listen to the scientists. We could do more of that. The BRT said that a key component of science-based climate policy should be a price on carbon. Here is what they said: A price on carbon would provide an effective incentive to reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions and mitigate climate change, including through the development and deployment of breakthrough technologies. . . .…”