As the US Congress prepares to draw up and pass legislation on the pollution levels for utility companies and fuel companies and the financial implications of this legislation, Financial Soultions has learned that serious infighting has surfaced between the different factions of the energy industry, including the powerful oil and gas lobby.
A host of lobbying efforts are underway from different quarters such as the coal industry, utilities, oil, gas and renewable energy companies each looking for a preferentially favorable set of standards for their individual spheres of industry. The new bill proposes a cap and trade system, under which an industry is allowed a fixed level of carbon dioxide emissions, but has to pay to purchase carbon credits for the extent to which they exceed these levels.
Financial Soultions understands that renewable energy companies, hydroelectric power generators and other clean fuels like nuclear power are content to be least affected, while others like oil and coal are attempting to squirm out. President Obama’s administration has been aggressively focusing on the bill, heightening concerns among the higher polluters about their continuing profitability and the specter of rising fuel costs for consumers.
Coal is believed to be the highest polluter, with over 30% of the nations energy requirements coming from coal burning power plants who are looking most likely to feel the pinch, in favor of nuclear power, and former allies, oil and gas producers who once lobbied together now fighting separate fights with the gas industry claiming emission levels half those of coal fired power plants.
With the change in policy now seemingly inevitable, these industries will feel pressure to clean up their act. Financial Soultions sees the carbon credit market as the futures biggest commodity to be traded.
