API Supports Carbon Pricing, Which Of Course Will Never, Ever, Ever Become Federal Law
Neat trick, huh?
When Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) got wind in March that the American Petroleum Institute would come out in support of carbon pricing, he felt the nation’s oil lobby was bending to liberal pressure. “I’ve been disappointed in lots of corporations and corporate organizations that have found it really important, evidently, to curry some favor with the Biden administration,” Cramer told host Larry Kudlow on Fox Business Network. “And I’m afraid that’s what’s going on here with the API.”
He soon heard from API President Mike Sommers. “They called to try to explain themselves to me,” Cramer told E&E News, attributing Sommers’ call to his Fox appearance. “Michael Sommers and I had a good long talk, and I said to him, ‘North Dakota’s largely made up of independents, not made up of multinationals, and understand that everybody has a different position, I understand yours as long as you understand mine.’” API told E&E News that the policy was approved unanimously by its board, which includes independent producers and other sectors of the industry. Cramer may have gotten more direct outreach on API’s carbon pricing proposal than the average decisionmaker in Washington. But like the rest of Congress, API didn’t change Cramer’s mind.
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Most Republicans interviewed by E&E News said API had lobbied them in some form on its carbon pricing platform, but almost none had changed their mind. “We had a discussion. My position is pretty well staked out,” said Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees taxes. “I strongly disagree,” he said of API’s position. “I think that the thinking — that the solution to climate change is to drive up energy prices, losing businesses and kill off all the oil and gas jobs — is a flat-Earth thinking. The solution here is to make affordable energy cleaner.”
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Democrats, on the other hand, said in recent weeks that they haven’t seen much lobbying from API on carbon pricing. And it’s making them doubt whether the industry is sincere or is using its new platform to deflect criticism that it’s blocking climate policies. “Of course not,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said, when asked if API had lobbied him on carbon pricing. “I don’t believe that they do support carbon pricing. I think that’s part of their scheme to try to block climate action with the pretense that they support carbon pricing.” “Not that I’m aware of,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). “This dynamic has existed for some time where, especially the oil majors, will be on record as supporting a policy, but then nary a finger gets lifted on Capitol Hill,” he said. “When those organizations, when American majors or the trade associations get behind a specific policy, and are serious about supporting it, people on Capitol Hill know.”
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https://www.eenews.net/articles/api-supports-carbon-pricing-but-its-allies-remain-skeptical/