Business mobilizing to stop Kyoto
LONDON — A detailed and disturbing strategy document reveals an extraordinary corporate plan to destroy Europe's support for the Kyoto treaty on climate change. The ambitious scheme was passed to the UK’s Independent just as 189 countries were trying to agree on the second stage of the Kyoto climate treaty at the UN climate conference in Montreal. It was pitched to companies such as Ford Europe, Lufthansa, and the German utility giant RWE.
Put together by Chris Horner, a senior official with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a group partly funded by Exxon Mobil, the plan seeks to draw together major international companies, academics, think tanks, commentators, journalists and lobbyists from across Europe into the a pressure group, the European Sound Climate Policy Coalition.
Based in Brussels, the coalition would have anti-Kyoto position papers, expert spokesmen, detailed advice and networking instantly available to any politician or company who wanted to question the wisdom of proceeding with Kyoto and its cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.
Horner describes himself as an adviser to President George Bush. His organization has received almost $1.5 million from Exxon Mobil.
Corn burning stoves catching on
VALPARAISE, IN — As U.S. heating costs spiral to all-time highs, homeowners are turning to burning corn in special stoves to reduce their energy bills. Sales of corn-burning stoves have tripled this year and distributors across the country have been sold out for weeks, Agence France Presse reports. "We are actually taking deposits for products for next fall — it's all you can do," said Ed Hiscox, owner of furnace retailer Hiscox Sales and Service in Valparaiso, IN, in the middle of the U.S. corn belt.
Corn-burning and more common wood-burning stoves began growing in popularity four years ago among environmentally minded consumers interested in cheaper and renewable energy sources, according to the French news service. About 65,000 corn stoves were sold domestically last year, estimated Mike Haefner, president of Minnesota-based American Energy Systems. He expects a jump to about 150,000 this year, and at least 350,000 in 2006. Even with a retail price of $1,600 to $3,000, the stoves often pay for themselves within a year or two.
posted December 19, 2005
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