Everybody But Bush? (And Why GE is ASKING for Government Regulation)

Things get lonely when you're at 32% (in today's CNN poll) and gasoline prices are rising past the horizon. Now even Republican lawmakers and corporations---even energy corporations--are abandoning Bush on the Climate Crisis. They are suddenly recognizing that it's real, and we need to do something about it.

We're not just talking Ahnold, but members of Congress. The corporations include General Electric, and what they're talking about is very instructive. For all the rhetoric about de-regulation and getting the gubment off the backs of polluters like DeLay (a small time pest controller so aggravated by health regulations on the poisons he used that he ran for Congress), businesses have usually understood that government regulation is a way of leveling the playing field so nobody gets a competitive advantage by doing something that is eventually going to hurt everyone, businesses and customers alike.

So now a GE division is backing legislation to control carbon emissions, for the additional reason that if they are to invest in clean energy technology, they want some assurance that a market will be there:

Two years ago, we weren't talking about it; it's a dramatic change,'' John Krenicki, head of Atlanta-based GE Energy, a unit of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric, said in an interview. He predicts that a greenhouse gas limit will be in place in less than five years.
GE Energy, the world's biggest maker of power-plant equipment, and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke Energy, the largest U.S. utility owner, are among companies that told the Senate Energy Committee earlier this month they welcome carbon regulation.
The companies say they want certainty before making billions of dollars in investments in ``clean'' technologies. They also are wary of having to deal with a hodgepodge of state standards.

This is how the marketplace works--with government---for everyone.