EEI Chairman and DTE Energy Chairman and CEO Tony Earley, in Washington, D.C. for the EEI Spring Board and CEO meetings, said the compromise climate-bill working its way through the Senate could prove to be "a workable solution." Earley, who discussed the issue at an Energybiz Leadership Forum, was quoted by ClimateWire as saying: "It would have to be part of a comprehensive package that would make it absolutely clear that everyone is going to have to bear some of this burden. What we don't want to have happen is for the utility industry to bear the burden of all of the reductions."
Ralph Izzo, chairman, president and CEO of Public Service Enterprise Group, was quoted as saying: "We are at the point now where uncertainty is more expensive than cap and trade." Izzo indicated that companies were hesitant to move forward on offshore wind investments, nuclear projects, solar and other peripheral ventures without a price on carbon. He added: "I need to see that before I boldly charge up this hill and I don't see anybody behind me."
NRG Energy President and CEO David Crane, in touting an economy-wide cap, noted that the question of carbon prices was "such an impediment at this point ... that we are not going to be overly hung up" if the utility industry is the first to be placed under a carbon limit in a sequence of limits for industries. Pepco Holdings President and CEO Joseph Rigby was also described as a reluctant supporter of the new framework: "For cap and trade it is more important to get it in place so that the industry can react. You've got to start somewhere. But it troubles me" if it just starts with the power industry.
EEI's immediate past chairman, David Ratcliffe, chairman, president and CEO of the Southern Co., is taking a wait-and-see approach to the final language, saying: "I am certain as an industry we have not abandoned any of those fundamental concepts.
Ratcliffe, who played a key role in laying out the EEI members concerns earlier, said there was broad support for a cap on carbon emissions if certain industry needs were met, wrote ClimateWire, "such as 40 percent emission allocations, carbon price containment measures, funding for carbon capture and sequestration, and targets and timetables that paced with development of technology. He said: "We have been very clear as an industry that we would love to have a definitive answer. But I have been very clear that I don't want a bad definitive answer. I don't want an answer quick that is definite and ill-informed, so if it takes time I am willing to wait on the answer, to get a well-informed answer."
