As a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, Dow supports prompt enactment of environmentally effective, economically sustainable and fair climate change legislation to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions sharply by mid-century. The centerpiece should be an economy-wide cap and trade program. This market-based approach is the best way to put a price on carbon and ensure that short- and long-term emissions targets are met.
We call for:
- Protecting feedstocks. Some manufacturers use fossil energy as a feedstock material. This fossil energy is not combusted and does not result in emissions of greenhouse gases. Cap and trade should not penalize fossil energy used as feedstock material.
- Minimizing anti-competitive impacts on energy-intensive, trade exposed manufacturers. Any climate policy should be designed to prevent “leakage”, that is, the movement of U.S. production overseas to countries that do not have adequate climate policies.
- Minimizing fuel switching (from coal to natural gas) in the power sector. Climate policy should be designed to avoid a “dash-to-gas” from coal to natural gas in the power sector. Such a movement will greatly increase demand for natural gas that could, in the absence of increased supply, drive up prices for manufacturers.
- Promote new clean energy technologies. Lawmakers should accelerate federal research, development and deployment of clean energy technologies and provide incentives for private RD&D. In addition, dedicate any revenue generated from the sale/auctioning of allowances to fund climate friendly projects.
- Ensuring a global approach. Ultimately the problem of climate change must be solved globally. U.S. policy must create incentives and encourage actions by other countries, including large emitting economies in the developing world, to implement GHG emission reduction strategies.
