The American Spectator

As an investor in PepsiCo, National Legal and Policy Center’s Peter Flaherty had something to say today at the annual shareholders meeting, where he proposed that the company disclose its lobbying priorities. The eco-pandering execs rejected the idea, despite his appeal. From his remarks:

PepsiCo is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership a coalition of corporations and environmental groups. USCAP’s mission is to “quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.” The House of Representatives has obliged in the form of the Waxman-Markey bill. According to the Heritage Foundation, this bill would destroy over 1.1 million jobs, hike electricity rates 90 percent, and reduce the U.S. gross domestic product by nearly $10 trillion over the next 25 years.

If consumers have to spend all their money on their electric bills, how are they going to buy potato chips? [PepsiCo owns Frito Lay]…

PepsiCo distributes Aquafina, reportedly the largest-selling brand of bottled water in the United States. Bottled water has come under attack by the same people who push global warming. They argue that Aquafina is just tap water anyway, so it needlessly adds to carbon emissions to bottle it and truck it around.

Instead of defending the rights of its own customers to buy its product, PepsiCo seeks to appease these critics by jumping on the global warming bandwagon. It has even come up with something called the Eco-Fina bottle that uses 50% less plastic, saving an estimated 75 million pounds of plastic annually. Of course, the activists aren’t fooled, accusing PepsiCo of “greenwashing.”

So for PepsiCo, it’s a slippery slope. Once you accept the dubious premise that your plastic bottles made from petroleum are destroying the earth, you end up having to support grandiose plans to save it, which of course necessitates massive government intervention in the economy.

Flaherty’s entire remarks are worth a read, which further reveal what a bunch of politically clueless clods are running the company. And just whose bright idea was it to make consumers think Sierra Mist is nothing more than carbonated swamp water?