Carbon News
CARBON NEWS....Right now I'm wandering aimlessly around the web looking for news — any news — that's not election related. After all, there's only so much you can say about a day when both Democratic candidates tied and their demographic appeal stayed pretty much the same as it's always been. So how about this item passed along by Kate Sheppard?
Three of the biggest investment banks — Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley — announced this week that they're creating new environmental standards that will make it more difficult for companies to secure investments for new coal-fired power plants. The standards will require utility companies seeking funds to build new plants to demonstrate that the plants will be economically viable under carbon constraints, and mandates that new plants take actions to be more energy-efficient, incorporate renewable energy sources, or put in place carbon capture and storage technology. The fact that major financial institutions are realizing that coal is becoming an expensive, dirty habit is very good news in the battle against climate change.The downside to this news is that I don't really have anything very insightful to say about it. But it certainly brightened my day. It's nice to know that serious carbon constraints are now such a widely accepted part of our political future that Wall Street is no longer willing to take anyone seriously who thinks otherwise.