WASHINGTON – A leading natural gas trade association came out in support of carbon taxes Tuesday, as pressure increases on the oil and gas industry to better work with government on addressing climate change.
Source: Houston Chronicle
Representing companies including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Cabot and Southwestern Energy, Natural Gas Supply Association President Dena Wiggins said member companies were unanimous in their support for taxing carbon emissions and suggested more in the industry were likely to follow.
“It’s such a huge, important national conversation, every trade association has to be thinking about it,” she said. “We’re likely not going to be the last.”
The Natural Gas Supply Association said it is not yet lobbying for any one specific proposal, but broadly supports carbon taxes that also eliminate existing regulations on carbon and deliver revenues not to government but directly to American consumers.
The move comes as a number of state regulators are debating how to go about decarbonizing the power grid, including direct subsidies for nuclear plants, which have been closing at a fast pace in recent years amid increasing competition from gas and renewables. At the same time some cities are weighing bans on natural gas, in a bid to address climate change.
But Wiggins said that was not why her trade group chose to come out in support of a carbon tax.
“It might [help our image] but that’s not why we did it,” she said. “We think it’s the right thing to do and want to be part of the conversation.”
Not included in the NGSA’s announcement were other greenhouse gas emissions such methane, which oil companies routinely flare in lieu of building pipelines and other infrastructure to get natural gas to market. Methane also escapes from leaks in pipelines.
