Obama: Not A Single CEO I Talk To Denies Climate Change, Even Those In The Fossil Fuel Industry

It's hard to discern what lies at the root of climate deniers' logic. But an argument you often hear is that addressing climate change would add unnecessary costs to corporations.

President Barack Obama says that argument doesn't make any sense, because, according to him, the corporations themselves have all acknowledged climate change is occurring and are trying to figure out how to adjust their operations accordingly.

In an interview with The Economist published this weekend, Obama said most businesses are instead hungry for clarity from Washington about what kind of regulations are going to be imposed to address climate change.

"There aren't any corporate CEOs that you talk to at least outside of maybe-no, I will include CEOs of the fossil-fuel industries-who are still denying that climate change is a factor," Obama said. "What they want is some certainty around the regulations so that they can start planning. Given the capital investments that they have to make, they're looking at 20-, 30-year investments. They've got to know now are we pricing carbon? Are we serious about this? But none of them are engaging in some of the nonsense that you're hearing out of the climate-change denialists."

Here's the exchange in full. Obama also explains that he meets with business leaders more often than many would believe, though accuses them of a degree of hypocrisy, saying their professed values often don't coincide and what their lobbyists are actually doing on the hill.

The Economist: Do you really think that's true? Because when I talk to corporate CEOs, that's one of their complaints. If you ask for a complaint about the White House, they'll say it is the attitude. Every CEO nowadays is involved in nine different social responsibility things-it's ingrained in most public-

Mr Obama: Well, I think-here's what's interesting. There's a huge gap between the professed values and visions of corporate CEOs and how their lobbyists operate in Washington. And I've said this to various CEOs. When they come and they have lunch with me-which they do more often than they probably care to admit (laughter)-and they'll say, you know what, we really care about the environment, and we really care about education, and we really care about getting immigration reform done-then my challenge to them consistently is, is your lobbyist working as hard on those issues as he or she is on preserving that tax break that you've got? And if the answer is no, then you don't care about it as much as you say.

Now, to their credit, I think on an issue like immigration reform, for example, companies did step up. And what they're discovering is the problem is not the regulatory zealotry of the Obama administration; what they're discovering is the dysfunction of a Republican Party that knows we need immigration reform, knows that it would actually be good for its long-term prospects, but is captive to the nativist elements in its party.

And the same I think goes for a whole range of other issues like climate change, for example. There aren't any corporate CEOs that you talk to at least outside of maybe-no, I will include CEOs of the fossil-fuel industries-who are still denying that climate change is a factor. What they want is some certainty around the regulations so that they can start planning. Given the capital investments that they have to make, they're looking at 20-, 30-year investments. They've got to know now are we pricing carbon? Are we serious about this? But none of them are engaging in some of the nonsense that you're hearing out of the climate-change denialists. Denialists?

Click here to read the full interview at The Economist »