Monday, September 25, 2006

Business regulation or innovation?

A quick note taken from the New Yorker - the sentiments from PG&E (with regards to California's recent greenhouse gas bill) echo what I've been hearing in Europe - that utilities & big emitters are eager to do better, but need some long-term regulatory assurances:

Peter Darbee, the head of the state’s largest utility, P.G. & E., whose support was crucial to the bill’s passage, said he welcomed the strictness of the regulations as a spur to innovation. “The incentives really aren’t there for the creation of new technologies and investments to reduce carbon dioxide unless mandatory caps are put in place,” he told the Times.

GHG caps are not the crippling regulations they're often made out to be - and they have the power to actually help drive development. Stay going.

1 comment:

Beo said...

It is sick that the legal ramifications for a publically held company not following the most 'profitable' ventures force companies to pollute and consume more until we mandate that they improve. We need Natural Capitalism-or at least CO2 trading here in the states.