XPost: alt.global-warming   
      
   Top oil and gas lobbying group close to backing a carbon tax   
   Steven Mufson, The Washington Post   
      
   The American Petroleum Institute (API), the US oil and gas industry's   
   key lobbying group, is "edging closer to endorsing a carbon tax" which   
   would make fossil fuels more expensive, according to the Washington   
   Post. It says the organisation's policy committee is considering such   
   a tax as an alternative to federal regulation and policies aimed at   
   slowing climate change. However, the newspaper notes that critics   
   "doubted the sincerity" of such a move because it is unlikely Congress   
   would adopt a carbon tax, "allowing the trade group to appear to   
   support climate action while risking little". It notes that the   
   organisation must pick the right language at a time when president Joe   
   Biden "wants urgent action in the fight against climate change" and   
   the API wants to push back against limits on drilling and methane   
   regulations. The statement from the API, which was first reported in   
   the Wall Street Journal, says: "API supports economy-wide carbon   
   pricing as the primary govt climate policy instrument to reduce   
   CO2 emissions while helping keep energy affordable, instead of   
   mandates or prescriptive regulatory action". Wall Street Journal   
   columnist Holman W Jenkins writes a piece praising the development,   
   stating that a carbon tax was "Congress's primary focus for a decade   
   until the green left shifted wholesale to the mandates-cum-subsidies   
   approach that prevails today". The Hill notes that the move comes   
   after French oil company Total announced its exit from the API, saying   
   the group's goals and those of the Paris Agreement were at odds.   
      
   Meanwhile, speaking at the world's largest oil and gas conference   
   CERAWeek, the US climate envoy John Kerry urged fossil-fuel companies   
   to do more to diversify and adopt low-carbon technologies to tackle   
   climate change, Reuters reports. The piece notes Kerry was "speaking   
   alongside oil executives making the case for the continued production   
   of oil and gas", and called specifically for the acceleration of   
   hydrogen development, carbon capture and other technologies that can   
   reduce emissions. The Hill quotes Kerry as saying the US could   
   significantly expand its renewable capacity, but would have to "get   
   rid of some of our chauvinism and our parochial components that resist   
   common sense and the need to move very hastily to get this done".   
      
      
   --   
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)