03 Dec 2009 In Wake of Climategate Revelations, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers Should Stop Lobbying for Cap-and-Trade Legislation and Reassess his Climate Change Business Strategy, Says Free Enterprise Project

Washington, DC – The Free Enterprise Project of the National Center for Public Policy Research is calling on Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers to cease lobbying for global warming cap-and-trade legislation in the wake of revelations leading to questions about the integrity of the data and processes underpinning the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global warming conclusions.

The IPCC is the United Nations body that concluded man’s activity is responsible for global warming.

In a scandal now known as “Climategate,” released documents and emails from a climate research branch of a British university reveal what appear to be efforts to manipulate data to support the preexisting views of leading climate researchers. 

Raw data on which IPCC conclusions were based also has been destroyed.   

IPCC reports on global warming are frequently relied upon by corporations and governments to develop their policy on climate change.

“For the sake of his company, shareholders and customers, Rogers must stop lobbying for a law whose scientific foundation could be made of sand.  Given the questions surrounding the integrity of scientists that contributed to the IPCC report, Rogers must conduct an internal review to independently evaluate the impact of manipulated and destroyed data on Duke Energy’s climate change policy,” said Tom Borelli, Ph.D., director of the Free Enterprise Project. 

According to Duke, the company’s global warming policy is largely based on the IPCC report.  A company report on global warming states, “…our policy positions are driven by the IPCC peer-reviewed science and by our judgment that this science is not only credible, but that it is accepted by the vast majority of public policymakers who will shape U.S. climate legislation in the years to come.”

“Rogers must exercise his fiduciary responsibility to shareholders by carefully assessing whether he has been duped by a group of rogue climate change scientists.  The burden of proof is now on Rogers to show his global warming policy is sound and Duke Energy’s board of directors must hold him accountable,” said Borelli.  

Rogers has taken a high-profile role in lobbying for cap-and-trade legislation, including testifying in Congress and appearing in TV advertising to promote the Company’s global warming policy.

“If climate change is proven to be a fraud, the billions of dollars of carbon credits Rogers is seeking from cap-and-trade legislation will be worthless.  There is no secondary market for a government contrived commodity such as carbon dioxide,” added Borelli.

The National Center for Public Policy Research is non-partisan, non-profit educational foundation based in Washington, D.C. It is a truly independent foundation, with the vast majority of its revenue derived from hundreds of thousands of small contributions.  Less than 2 percent of its revenue comes from corporate gifts.

Visit the Free Enterprise Project’s website at www.freeenterpriser.com or the National Center for Public Policy Research’s website at www.nationalcenter.org or call (202) 507-6398 to interview Dr. Borelli.