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Capital Formation Newsletter
March-April, 2006, Vol. 31, N0. 2
EU Ambassador Bruton Speaks at ACCF Capital Formation
Forum
ACCF Testifies at Senate Climate Conference
California Climate Change Initiative Summit Hears
ACCF Views
ACCF Hosts Evening on Economic Policy in an
Election Year
Retirement Policy Challenges Are Focus of
ACCF Evening
(PDF
Version)
EU Ambassador Bruton Speaks at ACCF Capital
Formation Forum
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Investment by the United States in European Union countries
and by the EU in the U.S. continues to be very important,”
Ambassador John Bruton, the EU’s ambassador to the U.S.,
told participants in an ACCF Capital Formation Forum on March
15.
The EU Ambassador pointed out that the $2.5 trillion U.S.-EU
transatlantic economy represents the largest, most integrated
and longestlasting economic relationship in the world, supporting
14 million jobs, half of which are in the United States. The
U.S.-EU economic relationship dwarfs America’s economic
ties with China. EU companies are the single largest foreign
investor in 45 of the 50 U.S. states and rank second in the
remaining five. Europe provided 65 percent of all foreign
investment in the U.S. in 2003.
“Anything we can do to facilitate investment between
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EU Ambassador John Bruton speaks at the ACCF’s March
15 Capital Formation Forum.
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the U.S. and the EU is good,” Ambassador Bruton said, adding
that foreign investment is the backbone of the EU-U.S. economic relationship.
“Minimizing regulatory costs is one key way to encourage that
investment,” he said.
Assessing some of the differences between EU and U.S. approaches
on political and economic issues, Ambassador Bruton pointed to the
differences between the EU/U.S. perspectives on climate policy.
ACCF supporters and guests listen to Amb.
Bruton (left to right): Steve Larkin, president, The Aluminum
Association; Hon. Charles W. Stenholm, ACCF director; Paul
Freedenberg, vice president, Government Relations, AMT - The
Association for Manufacturing Technology; Kelly Johnston,
vice president, Government Affairs, Campbell Soup Company;
J. Steven Judge, senior vice president, Government Affairs,
Securities Industry Association; and Herschel L. Abbott, Jr.,
vice president, Government Affairs, BellSouth Corporation.
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“Poverty and disease,
especially in less developed nations, are far more urgent problems
than climate policy,” he said, stressing that “it
is possible to deal with both poverty and disease and with climate
policy at the same time.” The EU approach to climate policy
involves setting limits on emissions and imposing penalties
when the limits are exceeded. The U.S. sees investment in technology
as the way to promote emission reduction and does not impose
penalties, an approach that he believes does not necessarily
lead to reduced emissions. |
Since the emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol
expire in 2012, Ambassador Bruton emphasized that the EU and the
U.S. need to examine what can be done in the future to control global
emissions. “Progress on climate policy beyond 2012 will require
a commitment on emissions from emerging economies,” he said.
Trade is another area of dialogue between the EU and the U.S.
The EU Ambassador said he hopes the current round of trade talks
will be a success and will encourage the opening of new markets
and avoid any possible psychological setbacks. The 25 EU countries
face other economic challenges, he said, including the need for
a more stable energy supply and greater energy security, an increase
in energy efficiency by placing greater emphasis on electrical grids,
and new agreements in the aviation sector that could promote air
travel. Ambassador Bruton is a former Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach),
who helped transform the Irish economy into the “Celtic Tiger,”
one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
ACCF Testifies at Senate Climate Conference
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Dr. Margo Thorning, ACCF senior vice president and chief
economist, presented testimony on Cost Effective Strategies
for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions before the Senate Committee
on Energy and Natural Resources’ Climate Conference on
April 4. The Committee’s Climate Conference heard testimony
from four panels of invited expert witnesses from business,
associations, think tanks, and government entities.
Energy use and economic growth go hand in hand, so helping
the developing world improve access to cleaner,
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Dr. Margo Thorning and Mr. Ned Helme, president, Center
for Clean Air
Policy, present their perspectives at the Senate Energy
and Natural Resources Climate Conference.
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more abundant energy should be our focus, Dr. Thorning explained to
Committee members. Establishing a mandatory cap and trade system in
the U.S. would impede, not promote, U.S. progress in reducing emissions
intensity. She stressed that U.S. climate policies should continue
to strive to reduce energy intensity as the capital stock is replaced
over the business cycle and to develop new, cost-effective technologies
for alternative energy production and conservation and encourage the
spread of economic freedom for the developing world. This approach
is likely to be much more productive than having the U.S. adopt an
emission trading system (ETS) and thereby sacrifice economic well-being
and job growth with little or no long-term impact on global greenhouse
gas emissions. She added that the current slow capital cost recovery
in the U.S. federal tax code places domestic companies at a disadvantage
compared to our trading partners and slows the development and installation
of new energy-efficient technology.
Dr. Thorning noted that several provisions of the 2005 energy
bill should have a positive impact on climate change. The new Asia-
Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate can also play
a key role in transferring new technology to developing countries
and help provide the practical assistance that is needed for a global
approach to emission reduction. (To read Dr. Thorning’s statement,
please see http://www.accf.org/pdf/MTTestimony4-4-06.pdf.)
California Climate Change Initiative Summit
Hears ACCF Views
Dr. Margo Thorning, ACCF senior vice president and chief economist,
spoke on Cost Effective Strategies for Climate Change Policy for
California, the U.S. and the World as an invited witness at Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Climate Change Initiative Summit in
San Francisco on April 11. California lawmakers are now considering
ways to implement the targets set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
(GHGs) to 2000 levels by 2010. Dr. Thorning told Summit participants
that given the quality and quantity of empirical research demonstrating
that near-term targets and timetables for CO2 emission reductions
for the U.S. as well as for California would cost the U.S. jobs,
economic growth, and competitiveness and have no material impact
on global concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere, policymakers
in California should consider carefully whether they want to proceed
down this path alone.
To read Dr. Thorning’s statement, please see http://www.accf.org/publications/testimonies/test-climateCA41106.html)
ACCF Hosts Evening on Economic Policy in
an Election Year
The American Council for Capital Formation held its 141st ACCF
Economic Policy Evening on March 7. Discussion at the policy evening
focused on The Economic Policy Challenges: A Meeting Ground for
Democrats and Republicans in an Election Year. Guests at the
session included key economic policymakers from Congress and the
Bush Administration, top journalists and business leaders from the
private sector. For more information on ACCF Economic Policy Evenings,
see www.accf.org.
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| Pictured left
to right: 1) ACCF president and CEO Mark Bloomfield and Fred
W. Barnes, executive editor, Weekly Standard; 2) Joseph
M. McGuire, president, Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers,
and Philippe Gélie, U.S. bureau chief, Le Figaro;
3) Matt Frei, chief Washington correspondent, BBC, and Senator
Norm Coleman, (R-MN); 4) Congressman Dennis Moore (D-KS) and
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI); 5) Jonathan Weisman, staff writer,
Washington Post, and Jonathan T. (Toby) Mack, president,
Associated Equipment Distributors; and 6) Congressman Russ Carnahan
(D-MO) and Dr. Margo Thorning, senior vice president and chief
economist, American Council for Capital Formation. |
Retirement Policy Challenges Are Focus
of ACCF Evening
On April 4, the American Council for Capital Formation brought
together leading members of Congress with retirement policy responsibilities,
knowledgeable experts on retirement issues from the U.S. government,
think tanks, and international institutions, and high-ranking executives
from the insurance industry for a dialogue on Retirement Policy
Challenges: Can Annuities Play a Role? The session was the ACCF’s
142nd Policy Evening.
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| Pictured left to right: 1)
ACCF president Mark Bloomfield and Representative Joe Baca (D-CA);
2) John R. Strangfeld, vice chairman, Prudential Financial,
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), Mark D. Phelan, senior vice president,
Individual Investments Group, Nationwide Financial, and Dr.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, director, Maurice R. Greenberg Center for
Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker Chair in International
Economics, Council on Foreign Relations; 3) Dr. Holtz-Eakin
and Representative Dennis Moore (D-KS); 4) Gregory S. Lashutka,
senior vice president, Corporate Relations, Nationwide, and
Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO); 5) Senators Mike Crapo
(R-ID) and Susan Collins (R-ME); and 6) Scott Sleyster, executive
vice president, Prudential Retirement, Representative Earl Pomeroy
(D-ND), and Dr. Margo Thorning, ACCF senior vice president and
chief economist. |
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