NC companies oppose Chamber

neo_mom, I find it difficult to accept at least some of your logic. You argue that Apple shouldn't support cap-and-trade in the U.S. because they manufacture some of their products in China, where pollution controls are more lenient. Isn't this an example of making the perfect the enemy of the good? Kind of like arguing that a person shouldn't do a good thing because they could do a better thing?

Perhaps Apple can't justify pulling out of China entirely because this would hurt their profit margin too much, but at the same time they can justify supporting domestic cap-and-trade legislation because it would only hurt their profits a little bit and they think that the additional benefits outweigh the additional costs.

Generally, companies (and people) can perform the same act for more than one single reason...let's call that mixed motives. It bothers me not at all if some companies support cap-and-trade in part because they think it's good P.R., or because they think they can make a profit. If a company says "hey, if we support cap-and-trade and therefore our customers live longer, then those customers will probably be able to buy more of our product during their extra years alive" then that is a fine reason, even if it's not as noble as "we support cap-and-trade because it is a moral imperative."

Any corporation's primary duty is to its shareholders, and most shareholders want profit above all else. Cap-and-trade is a mechanism that requires companies to begin paying for the externalities of the pollution that they cause. It also allows the profit motive to work in a more precise fashion than our current system, in which companies don't pay for the pollution damage that they do to the global commons (i.e., all of us).

Its all political BS.

GE wants to sell carbon credits. Apple, Microsoft, and Nike are uber liberal. The energy companies like Excelon have lots of nuke plants and want to build more. blah blah blah

It has zero to do with "Saving the Planet". Case in point - Apple. Their HQ is in California. They build iPhones in Shenzhen, China

A blog juxtaposed pics of the air quality in both places. If Apple really cared about the planet (or folks in the US for that matter), they would shut down in China in protest to the Chinese gov't not signing on to Cap/Trade either and put some Californians to work building those iPhones. Its not like they aren't making a boatload of money off of them anyway.

Hmmmm?