Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Guardian is celebrating that Big Business jetted into a Miami Climate Conference, touting their 2050 climate plans and purchases of wind power. But in my opinion not everything is as it seems.
Top US firms including Walmart and Ford oppose Trump on climate change
- Big businesses appear at Miami summit to show progress on sustainability
- ‘We’ve been working on this for a long time, prior to this administration’
Richard Luscombe in Miami
Saturday 2 December 2017 03.32 AEDT
Since taking office, Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, rolled back numerous protections against environmental pollution and espoused coal as the fuel of the future, all in the name of job creation and ending what he sees as the “theft of American prosperity”.
Yet the big businesses he claims to champion are increasingly choosing to ignore the US president’s sceptical stance on climate change and press ahead towards their own environmental goals without him.
Several of the country’s corporate giants, including Walmart, General Motors, Ford and Mars, appeared this week at the second annual Companies v Climate Change conference in Miami to showcase their progress and reinforce their belief that sustainability and other green targets can be achieved irrespective of the policies and purpose of the White House.
“We were disappointed [the] US pulled out of Paris, but what’s so great is what companies can do to make a difference,” said Zach Freeze, senior director for strategic initiatives in sustainability at Walmart, the first retailer to announce science-based targets for emissions reductions and a key signatory to the We Are Still In declaration that followed Trump’s Paris withdrawal.
“We all have a lot we can do and should do, it’s becoming more and more of an imperative. We’ve been working on this for a long time, prior to this administration [and] we’re thinking about 10 years from now where we’re going to be. Regardless of what’s happening, this is something we believe in. If we do it the right way we will see progress.”
Walmart, which claims 260 million customers per week worldwide, and employs 1.4 million workers in the US alone, earlier this year announced its Project Gigaton initiative that aims to reduce CO2 emissions globally by one billion metric tons before 2050.
Other companies at the conference in Miami – a poignant venue following flooding from Hurricane Irma in September and the threat of obliteration from sea-level rise within the next century – touted their own achievements in defiance of Trump’s climate stance. For example, General Motors’ purchase of 200 megawatts of wind energy for its Ohio and Illinois plants achieves 20% of its target to use only renewable energy sources by 2050. Confectionery giant Mars, meanwhile, has launched a $1bn sustainability plan, targeting a 70% reduction in greenhouse gases.
…
As a small businessman I’ve noticed something about big business – they frequently seem to champion government initiatives which hurt small businesses, especially small businesses which are potential future competitors.
The Guardian claims President Trump is the champion of big business, but this is not true. President Trump wants to help all businesses, to create jobs and restore prosperity for the American people.
Many of those shuttered factories the President mentions in “theft of American prosperity” were owned by small businesses.
Plenty of small business people own factories, making a living and creating jobs providing a niche service. All of those small factory owners had the potential to grow into commercial rivals to big businesses – until the globalist green policies championed by their big business rivals shut them down.
I’m not saying big business green efforts are just a plot to hurt small business. Plenty of big business CEOs are true believers, they’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. A lot of their customers also worry about the climate, they like to be reassured that they’re not harming the environment when they buy big meat packs for their next family BBQ.
Of course not every big business CEO is the same. Some big businesses courageously oppose anti-competitive government policies, often earning strident public criticism for their efforts, despite the short term advantage such policies would deliver to their own businesses.
The bottom line, it does not hurt the competitive advantage of most big businesses to support policies which increase the costs and time wasting bureaucratic burden on all businesses. Big businesses can usually absorb the extra bureaucracy and cost. Small businesses not so much.
The lie of GW is so deeply entrenched in these people that they are completely blinded to the truth. So sad…
They can do what they will with their own money, give away their house and live in a cave for all I care.
As long as they don’t try forcing me me (or President Trump) to follow them or require the taxpayers to fund their crusade.
I think that’s what is commonly referred to as: Freedom.
And you have squarely put you thumb on the main point. President Trump isn’t prohibiting big business to chose ‘renewable’ energy or have a ‘sustainable’ philosophy so big business isn’t defying anybody.
Well said!
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com
Except that it is not the CEOs money – the company belongs to the shareholders so we should be deciding on virtue signalling expenditure.
@ur momisugly Gerry, England
Shur nuff, iffen that’s what you believe, …….. just like England or the United States belongs to all its legal citizens, …….. RIGHT?
Duh, unless you are a “shareholder” in a privately held corporation …… or a MAJOR stock owner in a public corporation, …… the only thing you get to “decide on” is whether to sell the “stock” you own or to purchase more of the same.
Yes, this is what the Guardian wilfully ignores every time it reports Trump/Paris.
There are plenty of good reasons for being more energy efficient and more “sustainable” and if big businesses think they can gain more customers by playing the green card, then they are going to do it. Fine. That does not come out of taxes.
The other lie they persistently repeat is that Trump has pulled USA out of Paris which he has NOT actually done. He has just stopped giving away US tax dollars to an unaccountable US slush fund.
Good point Rhoda.
Much of the leftist meeja thinks the failure to introduce a new subsidy (eg by the creation of the Tesla battery Target demanded by our Greens) is equivalent to prohibiting new technologies. And that the failure to dynamite perfectly serviceable new coal plants is the same as banning the “cheaper” wind that would otherwise step in and lower prices. (As soon as someone else builds them a grid.)
This addiction to Govt is killing the country, but no one is capable of arguing against Big Govt.
Progs are so steeped in their view of the world as only being able to function via central command and control that they just cannot comprehend freedom — it’s anathema to them.
It’s why they’re dangerous. It’s also their primary weakness, as we are seeing here in the U.S. — they have no idea how to counteract a decentralized resistance to their tyranny and so they flail about with tales of Russia and boogeymen, and parts start flying off all over the place.
No, it’s simply economics. The subsidies for building bird choppers is so great that it is profitable to build these things for the tax breaks and subsidies. Take away the government freebees and the wind turbines will be shuttered very quickly.
Warren Buffet: “Wind farms are useless; I only invest for tax credit.”
I always comment to friends about the windmills and solar panels that power the delivery vehicles taht take products form world-wide sources to all those Walmart stores! I’m sure that Josh could illustrate the concept. And GM’s welders of car bodies might suffer if a cloud comes over, or the wind subsides. Bu never mind! The planet will be saved!
Do you suppose Walmart will draft a fleet of sailing ships to get its products here from China? THAT would dedication. Buying credits for wind energy (meaning one is using the SAME electricity everyone else is, exactly the same) is just a lie. I can’t support companies that lie.
Its pretty simple really imo.
Big businesses, particularly retailers, are marketing driven so their marketing image is of votal importance. For the Green Blob that is the vulnerability especially in the age of (anti) social media.
Big business has its corpoate testicles in plain sight and easy reach. The loss of profits following from a negative campaign is leveraged into the great fat bonuses of the management regimes which only compounds the sensitivity. Ad to that the opportunities for the marketing industry whenever their great big corporate clients eally, really need them and its a lay down misere as to what will happen.
It is little wonder it is very careful or not provoking the Green Blob Mob.
Exactly. While dissing the deniers costs them absolutely nothing.
Even a dead fish can go with the flow …
And figure out a way to make money off it.
Even after a Century of repeated failure, many people still believe that Communism could be made to work in a free society. ‘CAGW – Global Warming Theory ‘ runs on the same lines.
+1
CAGW is a extravegantly devised trojan horse full of communists.
Sad, but true.
Majority of young adults think astrology is a science
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2014/02/11/Majority-of-young-adults-think-astrology-is-a-science/5201392135954/
Majority of young adults do not think.
How many are just mistaking “astrology” for “astronomy”?
Communism just needs to be tried ONE MORE TIME! And if that doesn’t work, try it one MORE time! And if that fails, repeat and repeat and repeat!
@ur momisugly Horace Jason Oxboggle
HA, me thinks you have also accurately described the “promises” being made each and every election “cycle” by the Democrat Party (US) and/or all Democrat politicians vying to be elected or re-elected.
“One more time, …… just vote for me/us one more time, ….. and I’ll guarantee you we’ll “get er dun” next time, ……. next time, …… next time.”
Horace, you have to give the collectivists some credit; they serve to organize the otherwise disorganized individualists.
If ot weren’t for the collectivist socialists and communists (who differ, near as I can tell only by their choice of facial hair) the individualists would be quite happy just making decisions about which roads need to be repaired and for how much.
Both sides are right. President Trump does not want to pour Billions into the Paris Agreement. He wants to take care of America first. These companies in the article prove that they don’t need the Paris Agreement for their individual companies to decide that they are going to on their own reduce Carbon Emissions. They will do great things for America’s environment , and President Trump will do great things for America’s economy. In the end everyone wins!
Blindly reducing carbon emissions is a really stupid idea. Carbon emissions sustain the planet’s
life forms, in case you’ve never been inside a science classroom.
We will all be poorer for it, but it is their choice. Or rather their shareholders’ choice. Then again we’ve seen CalPers rate of return with their
greengreed agenda.If Walmart wants to go “green” all they have to do is stop buying from China. But then the shelves would be empty.
They will do very bad things for their collective bottom line. Unless they figure out a way to make the government pay for it, of course.
You would be correct if you said they are going on their own to reduce real pollution (particulate matter, NOx, “dirty water). But there is NO advantage to the environment in reducing CO2.
(Of course the dirty little secret, that the MSM doesn’t want you to know, is that Trump ALSO wants to reduce particulate matter, NOx, dirty water).
Sid
“President Trump wants to take care of Americans”
Please tell me how the proposed tax cuts that Trump wants differ from a UN green fund. Both methods siphon cash vertically away from everyday Americans, basically into the same hands but different accounts.
If he succeeds it will start a global realignment to stay attractive.
CAGW = Communism, how droll and lacking in imagination.
How many parallel universes is yours removed from ours?
Don’t allow tax deductions for windmills or you are taking it out of the hides of the poor.
Will they have the same attitude when subsidies drop off line???
I see that Germany will no longer give subsidies to Tesla.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-subsidies-germany/germany-removes-tesla-from-subsidies-list-as-too-pricey-idUSKBN1DV4SB
How many of these big companies don’t want to take the chance of hurting potential with the tree hugging, root kissing Euro-Weasels?
Good point! They’re catering to their clientele, wooing their customers. Very astute of you!
Guardian: “Big Businesses Defy President Trump on Climate Change”
Dream on..
I don’t recall President Trump telling “big businesses” that they couldn’t support “climate change”, however, I believe he is saying that the US Government isn’t going to tell them that they have to support it.
But you see, if a leftist doesn’t like something they stop anyone from doing it at the point of a gun, if a libertarian doesn’t like something they simply refrain from doing it.
Owen
Do you have an example.
Regards
From WACO to taxes, the examples are endless. Are you really questioning why Thomas Jefferson described government as a necessary evil?
ozonebust: Gun control is a good example. Lefties in the US can’t stand that citizens have the right to own firearms, because a few psychopaths use them to act out their murder-suicide fantasies. They want more and more government regulations — even though these would do nothing to eliminate psychopaths who want to murder people — to the point where some lefties have called for an Australian-style gun seizure by police.
A libertarian, believing that people should not own firearms, just wouldn’t buy any.
ozonebust: I would start with the EPA, the US Environmental Protection Agency. They have rules about a fish called the delta smelt that limits the amount of fresh water is available in California. They have restrictions on any patch of water bigger than a small puddle which can prevent building projects going ahead and then there is the clean air act.
http://www.westernfarmpress.com/blog/californians-lose-800000-acre-feet-water-305-minnows
https://thinkprogress.org/a-controversial-epa-rule-is-pitting-small-farmers-against-big-agribusiness-650061605b8b/
http://www.wri.org/blog/2010/11/what-are-limits-epa-clean-air-act-holds-answers
What about the gun point part, you ask: The EPA has “guns, body armor, camouflage equipment, unmanned aircraft, amphibious assault ships, radar and night-vision gear and other military-style weaponry and surveillance activities”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/10/epa-spends-millions-on-military-style-weapons-repo/
The only favorable spin that could be put on businesses claiming adherence to the green blob is uncertainty as to whether the political initiatives put in place by Trump will last. Fear of the Democrats, who have a large number of rabid greens, is reasonable. The Republicans have a very poor record of punishing people or companies that suck up to the opposition, so caution has been low-cost.
“press ahead towards their own environmental goals without him.” Fine. If they believe that is in their best interest, let them have at it. But don’t saddle those who can not afford or don’t buy into all the hype to comply with regulations that will put them out of business. Time will tell if the big businesses made the right decision. It only makes sense if they become energy self-sufficient.
“As a small businessman I’ve noticed something about big business – they frequently seem to champion government initiatives which hurt small businesses, especially small businesses which are potential future competitors.”…………absolutely
They listed only 4 ‘big businesses’ that attended……out of the tens of thousands there are that did not
….not a big deal when put in that perspective
Those businesses were doing presentations, not ‘attendees’.
The idiocy of all this (aside from its narrow minded stupidity) is that these businesses are supporting dopey, environmentally obscene power generation schemes like wind power. So they are therefore doubly stupid : in what they are trying to do, and in their method of doing it. Now that’s being comprehensibly stupid.
Wind is price competitive. See WSJ words in my comment below.
Not when correctly calculated. See essay True Cost of Wind at Climate Etc. for details.
The WSJ can make anything price competitive. That’s the miracle of selective parameter inputs.
WSJ words: = Erin Ailworth and Russell Gold
Sometimes, even on the same day, newspapers report opposite facts.
Go figure.
” comprehensively”
First of all, don’t believe anything printed in the guardian.
Second: Big businesses make their plans years, if not decades in advance of anything actually happening therefore, they are mostly by now reliant on AGW to suit their business model of the future, which they have already designed and implemented. Therefore their proclamations on the Paris Accord have nothing to do with the environment, it matters only that their profits are not affected by yet another change in direction.
And not that profits are a bad thing, merely that supporting a false narrative on climate change so doggedly will ultimately prove very expensive for them, their shareholders and their customers.
Nor is it climate change that’s affected Western business, it’s cheap labour. Clydeside shipyards crashed over a generation ago because of cheap South Korean labour.
The writing was on the wall more than 25 years ago, but we all ignored it, now we’re paying the price.
Hotscot
You must factor in Union influence and control in the UK, as well as the bloody mindedness of the yard workers to change.
Folks talk about the reducing unemployment in the USA, but a study of part or full-time and wage rates is not friendly commentary.
ozonebust
Fair comment, but if yard workers wanted to continue to run a shipyard and compete against the Koreans, they had to accept Korean wages. So whatever they did they were going to be broke. I don’t blame the unions for fighting for survival, I do however, blame them for their tactics such as Scargill during the miners strike.
And in the same vein, there are persistent objections in the UK to part time working, multiple jobs and zero hours contracts people must endure to make a living. But I’m sorry, at least these people have work, it might not be great work, but it’s up to them how they better themselves.
Ultimately, there is only so much wealth in the world. Up until a generation or so ago, the Chinese, Russians and Indians didn’t want to engage with commercialism (India less so) but there are now two, billion people continents wanting a slice of the pie. And they don’t really care about working conditions or human rights, they just work till they drop.
The rest of the world had better get used to it because these countries have only just woken up. When they come down to breakfast they’ll want their fair share of bacon. Which means less for everyone else.
Traveling on the underground in London I saw a man reading a newspaper covered with a towel, I asked my friend why, “simple he said, it’s the Guardian”
The virtue signaling is strong in BigB CEOs, they rather would look good than run their companies well
bonana fanna fynuts.
WSJ …
Electricity Prices Plummet as Gas, Wind Gain Traction and Demand Stalls
Texas is a microcosm of pressures facing power generators; ‘It’s too late’ for coal
The rapid rise of wind and natural gas as sources of electricity is roiling U.S. power markets, forcing more companies to close older generating plants.
Wholesale electricity prices are falling near historic lows in parts of the country with competitive power markets, as demand for electricity remains stagnant while newer, less-expensive generating facilities continue to come online.
[ … ]
In 2016, all of the new generation built in the Southwest Power Pool, a grid that covers an area from Louisiana to Montana, was wind, gas and solar. The vast majority of the retirements were coal and nuclear plants.
Wind is the fastest-growing source of power on Texas’ grid. Last year, wind generated 15% of the electricity in ERCOT, more than nuclear power, which accounted for 12%. By 2019, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute expect wind to surpass coal as ERCOT’s second-largest source of electricity.
“Solar and wind are now competitive with natural gas-fired generation,” said Curt Morgan, Vistra’s chief executive.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/electricity-prices-plummet-as-gas-wind-gain-traction-and-demand-stalls-1512043200
Renewables are price competitive so why not use them and brag about it.
s-u-b-s-i-d-i-e-s
Other peoples money.
What is the difference between immoral and amoral?
“Renewables are price competitive”. Not when they have massive subsidies. And renewables (wind and solar) require hundreds of times more land area to produce the same amount of electricity. Price is not the only parameter.
The purpose of the subsidies is to kill the competition. Big business subsidy farming.
Renewables simply can’t be competitive if they require 100% backup. It means duplication of capacity.
“Renewables are price competitive so why not use them and brag about it.”
Because they kill millions of animals every year. You want to brag about that? I wonder if those private American companies want to brag about how many American Eagles and other animals they are killing with their windmills.
Do they want to brag about how they have blighted the American landscape with those horrible windmills? Do they want to live near those horrible windmills themselves?
As for price competitive: Why is it that if windmills are so price competitive, the NextEra windmill company (and Exxon to a lesser extent) is all over tv trying to sell itself to the public.
That advertising must cost a lot of money. There must be a good reason why they are spending that money. They started out advertising early in the mornings, and now they are advertising morning and evening. Curious. One would think that if their services were in such demand, they wouldn’t need to spend money on advertising.
Agree 100%.
As I was told in consumer psyche class, even the Post Office advertises. Lack of competition is not a reason to forego advertising.
You left out the rising cost to the end user. See any electric bills get smaller?
Oh yay. Wind is perpetual now, and storage of power is solved. Where do I send all my money?
rovingbroker: You have fallen for the spin. Re-read this part: “The rapid rise of wind and natural gas …” The “wind” part is insignificant while the gas part is crucial. It is the reduction in the price of gas that has caused prices to fall. Countries like Germany and Denmark still rely largely on wind and still have some of the highest electricity prices world wide.
The second part to the spin is: “Wind is the fastest-growing …”. “Fastest growing” is a spin phrase that means “smallest”. If I had a business that had a turnover of $1 this year it would be very easy to have a growth of 100% next year. That would make all the Fortune 500 companies look sick on a percentage basis but would they think I was any competition? I think not. Electricity from wind still provides about 0% of the world’s energy to the nearest whole percentage point.
There are thousands of catastrophic predictions since 1984.
Can anyone tell of any that came true.
The record of success is abysmal and frightening because the poor are dying needlessly.
On any other subject their record of zero from thousands would have been seen as a a fraud after five or so failures.
How does this racket survive at all?
Selling lies and fear. An age-old method that is quite successful, no matter how technologically advanced society becomes.
Big Business does lots of “business” with Big Government. Follow the Money!
Marketing, ever hear of it. Sex sells cars to the macho and stupid. Green washing sells cars to an equally stupid demographic.
Socialists never understand that it is not what you want to do with your own money, it is what government wants to do with our money. If private businesses and citizens want to spend their own money on things, most of us don’t care.
Big business talks a good game because it is good PR.
Businesses know that Democrats think you need to ask permission from government to do anything and that Republicans are philosophically opposed to being gate keepers. So there a penalties for standing up to Democrats and none for standing up to Republicans. For most companies, particularly one like Wal-Mart which is regularly in the sights of liberal left, turning cost saving or revenue generating actions into virtue signaling pays dividends in dividing the left’s onslaught.
Good point, Sean.
Your Youngstown Sheet and Tube photo brought back old memories. My grandfather worked there until they found out how old he was and forced him to retire at age 75. I am sure that the harsh environment in that factory contributed to his untimely early death at 100 years of age.
My grandpa in his 70s could still heave big railway sleepers onto his trailer for firewood. He was a WW2 artillery machinist. Made them tough back then.
That awful, awful job environment, that raised a family of five on a singe income. Lol
Corporate America is that seriously out of touch with working America.
In 1950, the average US salary was $4237, and the average house price was $7354. Flash forward to 2016 and the average US salary is $56,516 and the average house price is $382,500. Back in the day, one could almost buy the average house on one year of the average salary. Now it would take almost seven years of the average salary to buy the average house.
Is the problem now low wages, or high costs?
Drat for not proofreading better. That should be “buy the average house on less than two years of the average salary.”
James: false choice. The problem is neither high cost nor low wages. It’s a willingness to pay for far more, in terms of both size and features, than previous generations. I grew up in the 1950s in a typical house – 900 sq ft, no central heat (central furnace), no AC, two bedrooms, one bathroom, no built-in appliances, no fireplace, no deck/patio/pool, no jacuzzi tub. Houses around here cost about $100/sq foot (WITH central air/heat). I suspect I could replicate my childhood home for not much more than one year’s salary.
Maybe the ex-factory could be used to house Greenies, to be supplied with animal dung on which to cook their meals, as is done in third-world countries? Or maybe the Greenies could move to the afore-mentioned third-world countries, and thir repalcements could be recruited from those same countries?
Does Wal Mart actually make anything?, I don’t think so. They will push this reduction downwards to the suppliers? Their biggest CO2 footprint is distribution, by selling the distribution arm the problem is not theirs. Smarter lighting and more efficient in-store refrigeration is a normal part of store upgrades.
Rooftop solar should be standard on all stores. Am I missing something.
Ford, how much of the raw materials component is supplied from out of the USA.
Walmart exported all their CO2 production to China in the 90s.
Walmart is saving CO2 by replacing checkout employees with robots.
Rooftop solar is a bust on installation costs alone, never mind if they give the panels away for free. You don’t make it up by installing more of it.
Does Wal Mart actually make anything?, I don’t think so. They will push this reduction downwards to the suppliers? Their biggest CO2 footprint is distribution, by selling the distribution arm the problem is not theirs. Smarter lighting and more efficient in-store refrigeration is a normal part of store upgrades.
Rooftop solar should be standard on all stores. Am I missing something.
Ford, how much of the raw materials component is supplied from out of the USA.
Historically, Walmart was credited with reducing inflation in the USA by three quarters of a percent annually by importing cheap goods from overseas, killing the jobs that Trump is trying to regain. Perhaps Pres Trump should impose on Walmart that 60% of goods must be USA manufactured, and take full ownership of the footprint for those goods.
“Does Wal Mart actually make anything?”
They make money, and employees miserable.
Anything else?
Remember when Sam Walton made commercials bragging how WalMart “would buy American whenever there was a choice of product? ” Those days are long gone.
So is Sam Walton.
JohnWho
December 1, 2017 at 4:35 pm
I don’t recall President Trump telling “big businesses” that they couldn’t support “climate change”, however, I believe he is saying that the US Government isn’t going to tell them that they have to support it.
I thought this comment was worthy of a repeat!
Some people (Liberals) cannot understand the concept of government NOT controlling business (or citizens)
SR.
SR
In general big business and the banks control the government. They have for some considerable time. The President does not control a helluva lot really.
You need to read about the attempted coup by DuPont etc after the WW2 of the USA presidency nothing happened to the conspirators, perpetrators.
Regards
General Smedley Butler, the plot to seize the Whitehouse.
These are the same people who think a tax reduction is a government subsidy.
Worthy of repeat only if you add this expenditure is not tax deductible, otherwise you and I are paying for it.