Is Caterpillar Going Green or Losing Green?

That’s the question CNBC asked Wednesday, as Senior Fellow Tom Borelli took to the airwaves to discuss the letter 70 organizations sent to Caterpillar, asking CEO James Owens to withdraw the corporation from the United States Climate Action Partnership lobbying campaign in favor of new and costly “cap and trade” energy-restriction regulations.

Tom, who in a separate capacity serves as portfolio manager of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, warned that Caterpillar is “going to hurt their profits” and “harm the U.S. economy… by going green, they are turning their customers red.”

Tyson Slocum of Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen joined the program to counter Tom, largely by arguing, without offering a shred of evidence, that it is “smart business” for major U.S. corporations to help left-wing environmentalists lobby Congress for restrictions on their own activities.

Karl Marx once said, “The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.”

Marx was wrong. The last capitalist to be hanged shall be the one who donated the rope, and then lobbied for his own hanging.

Mr. Slocum described environmentalism’s goals very well, though, when he admitted: “…the entire economy is going to have to be focused on adjusting to regulations that deal with climate change.”

The entire economy.

Mull that over.



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