LITTLE ROCK — Proposed legislation to reduce carbon emissions in the United States would be unlikely to make a difference in the global environment and could harm the nation's economy, Claiborne Deming, former chief executive officer at Murphy Oil Corp., said Friday.
The United States is "basically not the problem," Deming said to an audience of about 100 at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.
By far the biggest problems are China and the rest of the world, which are not addressed in the American Clean Energy and Security Act, said Deming, now the chairman of ElDorado-based Murphy's executive committee.
The bill would put caps on carbon emissions by industries and require the purchase of pollution permits from businesses that emit permissible levels of carbon. The bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives in June but the Senate remains divided over how to move forward. Many think that getting 60 senators to back an end to debate could be difficult.
Because the United States is a "post-industrial" country, its carbon emissions are expected to remain level for the next 25 years, according to areport by the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy, Deming noted. But China's carbon emissions are now equal to the U.S. level, and are expected to double during that period, the report says.
"So if you want to control [carbon emissions] in the future, you have to go to places other than our country," Deming said. "The bill is not conditioned on developing world participation."
If the Waxman-Markey bill passes, "a change in your lifestyle is coming and you're not being told about it," Deming said.
The bill would require the United States to reduce its carbon emissions by 3 percent by 2012, 42 percent by 2030 and 83 percent by 2050.
The last time the U.S. produced 83 percent less than its current carbon emissions was sometime in the 1800s, Deming said.
"So the likelihood of us getting there [in 2050] is extraordinarily small," Deming said. "It would take something that I don't think any of us would want to do."
On a more local level, Deming said Arkansas has about 61 billion tons of carbon emissions a year now and would have to reduce to about 10 billion tons by 2050. To illustrate the cuts necessary to reach that level, Arkansans would have to drive an average of 6,700 miles a year, well below the current average of about 12,500 miles a year, Deming said.
Making such dramatic reductions in carbon emissions during the next 40 years could be devastating to businesses and consumers, Deming said. To cover for the costs required for a business tobuy the carbon emission permits, a company would have to raise its prices significantly, Deming said.
Steve Cousins, a vice president for El Dorado refinery Lion Oil Co., told a House committee in June that if the bill passed, it "will make our survival impossible."
Benn Davenport, Arkansas representative of the Sierra Club's national climate campaign, agreed with Deming that the world needs to participate in climate change.
"But it's up to us to set the tone for what it means to pass bold climate legislation," Davenport said. "It's up to the United States to be a leader on this."
Most Americans approve of the way President Barack Obama is handling energy issues and support efforts by him and Democrats in Congress to overhaul energy policy, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Friday.
Nearly six in 10 of those interviewed support the proposed changes to U.S. energy policy being developed by Congress and the administration, the poll said. Fifty-five percent of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling the issue, compared with 30 percent who do not.
The poll was conducted Aug. 13-17 among a random national sample of 1,001 adults. The results have a margin of error of three percentage points.
Deming said better solutions would include steps such as asking Americans to drive less as well as offering incentives to buy diesel-powered vehicles, promote use of natural gas and build nuclear power plants.
Information for this article was contributed by Alex Daniels of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Steven Mufson and Jennifer Agiesta of The Washington Post.
Business, Pages 29, 30 on 08/29/2009