Two-Faced Oil Industry

EIN News says, "Environmentalists Slow to Adjust in Climate Debate; Opponents Seize Initiative As Senate Bill Nears. The oil lobby was sponsoring rallies with free lunches, free concerts and speeches warning that a climate-change bill could ravage the U.S. economy. Professional "campaigners" hired by the coal industry were giving away T-shirts praising coal-fired power. But when environmentalists showed up in this college town -- closer than ever to congressional passage of a climate-change bill, in the middle of the green movement's biggest political test in a generation -- they provided . . . a sedate panel discussion. (washingtonpost.com)
This is pure politics to the advantage of a specific group. In this case, it's the oil industry.
They have had mixed feelings on the greenhouse gas fad from its start. They initially supported a climate change bill, because they thought it would be to the their economic advantage . The basis was likely the thought that they could compete better with coal in production of electric power. Use of oil in automotive, home heating, transoceanic shipping, and production of petrochemicals (such as plastics), was not enough. The scientific thought was that burning a pound of gasoline, which is a hydrocarbon, produces less carbon dioxide than coal, which is wholly carbon. They combined this with the carbon dioxide greenhouse fad.
More recently, the public has become more knowledgeable in recognizing that there is no sound scientific basis for considering that increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will contribute to global warming through a mythical greenhouse effect. This caused the oil lobbyists to alter their position, but without true conviction. As soon as the environmentalists, who are not scientifically well-informed on atmospheric matters, raised strong objection, the oil lobbyists quickly backed down. They want no fight with anybody on the basis of scientific fact or public benefit. Their main justifiable objective is to make a profit, while giving everybody everything they want.
Because the oil industry and its lobbyists do not have an equitable basis on which to make climate recommendations, it is unjustifiable that Congress should consider their recommendations as advantageous to the public and the country at large.