America's Natural Gas Alliance's effort to push its agenda into the national climate-change debate was launched Thursday, and with it came the question: "Why? Aren't there other gas industry advocates lobbying Congress now?"
Sure there are, acknowledged Jim Hackett, chairman and CEO of Anadarko Petroleum. But at a Washington press briefing Thursday, he explained that he and the other CEOs who formed ANGA "don't see any conflict at all. We are all members of almost all if not all of these organizations. It's not a question of them vs. us."
Many in the industry believe those groups -- including the Natural Gas Supply Association, American Gas Association and Independent Petroleum Association of America -- received virtually no attention by the crafters of the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill in the House of Representatives because they didn't press the case that "there has been a paradigm shift in supply," Hackett said.
Gas "is in a position to play a brand new role, a larger role, recognizing that is clean, that it is markedly abundant now," he told reporters. "We thought we would create a new organization that was really focused on delivering that message and just that message alone."
Hackett said that in his opinion the Waxman-Markey bill "is worse than hieroglyphics. The amount of allowances go on and on and on." A carbon tax, he said, would be much simplier for the public to understand and the government to administer.
He rankled at the suggestion that such a tax was "not politically doable."
"I'm an American. I don't give a darn what's difficult politically," he said. "I want the right thing done, okay? It's not about money, it's not about getting re-elected. It's about doing the right thing for America."
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