Op-Ed: Here’s how companies can strong-arm their suppliers into cutting carbon emissions
In his piece “How to Cut Carbon Without Paying for It,” former National Economic Council Director (and former President Obama’s energy advisor) Eben Weiss highlights the ways some companies are using economic power to cut their footprint on the environment.
It starts with an e-mail pitch, a free lunch, a phone call, or even a simple visit to the store.
There is more to a company’s carbon footprint than making a paper profit. The U.S. government is starting to catch on to this idea as it considers how to force companies to cut carbon emissions and other environmental impacts.
Last year, the Obama administration proposed a set of measures to require U.S. companies to cut carbon emissions by at least 30 percent by 2025. But the administration also wants to reward companies that cut emissions faster. Companies that can cut their carbon emissions faster than the rest of them would be allowed to pay more for their carbon credits.
In addition to these business incentives, there are also government incentives that have the effect of forcing companies to change their operations.
As I explain in my new book, Green Ink: How Companies Are Using Economics to Reduce Corporate Greenhouse Gases, there are three main ways that an economy moves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
First, it may be illegal to operate on a greenhouse gas emitting facility. The second approach is to move operations that are already greenhouse gas emitting facilities to more efficient sources. The third strategy is to move operations off the ground to greener sources of energy.
Here are three of these economic forces that could drive companies to reduce their carbon footprint.
1. The Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act allows the EPA to take an enforcement action against any company that knowingly operates or proposes to operate a facility that causes a significant adverse environmental impact. This includes those that produce carbon that has been stored in the atmosphere or that is emitted while it is
