Chemicals boss warns of exodus (allow us to pollute or we take our jobs elsewhere)

[Robbien]

Source: Times UK

JIM RATCLIFFE, the reclusive billionaire behind Ineos, Britain’s largest private company, has warned Gordon Brown that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost if the prime minister commits Britain to tougher EU curbs on carbon emissions.

Ratcliffe issued the warning in a letter last week that was also signed by Paul Thompson, chief executive of GrowHow, the UK’s last remaining fertiliser manufacturer, and Steve Elliott, head of the Chemical Industries Association.

It is part of a feverish, last-ditch effort by the chemicals industry and other big energy users to force changes to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) ahead of a summit of EU leaders this week in Brussels, where they are expected to sign off on a bloc-wide climate-change package.

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In its current form, the ETS will impose carbon-emissions caps on industrial polluters from 2013 and force them to pay for 100% of their permits by 2020. Ratcliffe said that doing so would be “truly horrendous” for the industry and make it uncompetitive.

Instead, he says that chemicals manufacturers should be allocated permits for free and agree on less stringent pollution caps because they compete against rivals in countries not subject to such rules.

Read more: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article5299219.ece

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An extortion letter. Should be illegal.

[tavalon]

1. Hold the line, Mr. PM

They will stay or they will go and really, one shouldn't negotiate with terrorists.

If nothing else, we've learned that lesson with Paulson.

[bemildred]

2. Time for the perp walk. nt

[Lorien]

3. Let's see; bigger profits or the death of most life on the planet

this should be a no-brainer to most of humanity, except, of course, for those who were brainless to begin with. Ratcliff's void of intelligence has been filled with greed.

[SharonAnn]

17. Let them kill us for profit or they'll kill someone else for profit.

[Gman2]

4. Dethrone these assholes, or uncharter their corps. Deny influence in their markets

The old saw about not being able according to physics to tax a corp. They will just punish us worse. FUCK THEM. They will cower, with the right threat.

[Joe Chi Minh]

16. Sequestrate his assets as a theat to the environment.

[ohio2007]

5. hundreds of thousands of jobs headed to China

they will land those unwanted jobs with their "developing country" status waiver

[JDPriestly]

26. The waiver has to be ended. The balance of payments

shows that it is no longer needed.

[pattmarty]

6. Adios, motherfuckers!!! If the door doesn't hit you in the ass..........

.........my 9mm will!!!!!!

[w4rma]

7. Tariffs. (nt)

[navarth]

8. Yes. TARIFFS ALREADY.

[PSPS]

9. This is why we must return to tariffs.

This sort of blackmail is actually codified into our "trade agreements," especially when extra-legal enforcement panels like the World Trade Organization, who can overrule by fiat laws enacted by legitimate elected bodies, are involved.

In this case, the company should be free to move their facilities offshore, but their products would be subject to an import tariff equal to the amount they "saved" by moving to a country with no environmental laws, slave wages, etc.

[Phred42]

10. These people need to be in jail

[Odin2005]

12. They need to be guillotined. n/t,

[Odin2005]

11. This is what globalization and "free trade" is all about, being able to blackmail countries...

...into doing what the corporatist elite wants them to do or else they threaten to go elsewhere. It's a race to the bottom.

[Akoto]

13. Ah, so it's corporate extortion. Sounds like the ETS is scaring them bad. n/t

[denverbill]

14. Fine. Then impose stiff tariffs on importation of these chemicals. Asshole.n/t

[DBoon]

15. "because they compete against rivals in countries not subject to such rules."

he has just made a very good argument against free trade with any country not having comparable evnironmental standards

[formercia]

18. Ban products from countries that don't follow the rules.

Whiny criminals.

[IndianaGreen]

19. Answer: Nationalize the industry!

Throw the capitalist rascals out!

[BelgianMadCow]

20. Interesting timing. This week's Trends magazine has "rules will cost chem industry 700 million

concerted effort to spook us.

Screw them, we've been destroying our habitat for long enough.

[Raster]

21. "....yes, we know the planet's dying. That's not our problem."

[Vinca]

22. This is ecoterrorism. nt

[Arctic Dave]

28. Eco-terrorism. I think this sums it up well.

[Dover]

23. There needs to be international laws to stop this extortion and jobs drain..n/t

[Festivito]

24. And that's why they can sell water.

And charge more for piping it and more for cleaning it.

[JDPriestly]

25. Better yet, impose a tax on imports of products produced in polluting

plants that make the cost to polluters astronomical. Pollution should not pay. Ratcliffe has a point, sad as it is.

[iamjoy]

27. That's an Idea

it would tie in with "Fair Trade" policies.

Let's figure out a way to apply a carbon tax to imported products, too.

[BreweryYardRat]

29. I like the idea of enacting massive import tariffs.

Less viscerally satisfying than having that slimy little corporate bully reduced to a head on a spike at the Tower of London for his blatant extortion attempt, but probably easier to accomplish without sparking massive socio-political backlash.

[lonestarnot]

30. Fucking creep. I think the pollutants should be dumped at his house.