How Carbon Polluters Have Hijacked Part of California's "Green" Business Movement

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



How Carbon Polluters Have Hijacked Part of California's "Green" Business Movement

By Ali Winston, California Watch. Posted January 19, 2010.

the AB 32 Implementation Group, supposedly an environmentally-friendly coalition, is working to change the state's global warming laws.




An organization representing some of California’s biggest carbon polluters is working to alter the state’s global-warming law, while claiming to represent several "green" environmental companies that have since left the coalition after learning of its recent actions.

The coalition, calling itself the AB 32 Implementation Group, says it represents a broad section of California interests focused on global-warming regulations. The group, which is being managed by a large public relations firm, Woodward & McDowell, features photographs of white clouds and a field of flowers on its Web site.

But the organization itself includes 22 of the state’s biggest carbon polluters as ranked by the state Air Resources Board. Oil refiners, cement manufacturers, chemical companies, and trucking firms figure prominently. And, according to environmentalists and lawmakers, the Implementation Group has engaged in a steady campaign to undermine the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which mandates a 25 percent reduction in the state’s emissions by 2020.

California Watch found companies on the Implementation Group’s membership list that no longer exist or whose executives were surprised to learn of the group’s efforts to alter the global-warming law. Many of these companies are environmental-technology firms that had added a green luster to the Implementation Group’s big-business coalition, which includes more than 180 companies and associations. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/environment/145242/how_carbon_polluters_have_hijacked_part_of_california%27s_%22green%22_business_movement