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Steve Chiotakis: Today and tomorrow, more than 150 business executives will be up on Capitol Hill as environmental advocates. They want Congress to pass a new law cutting greenhouse gases. Jill Barshay has more.

Jill Barshay: The business executives say it’s actually in their self-interest to get stricter carbon emissions laws in place.

One of them is Ralph Izzo. He’s the CEO of a big New Jersey electric utility, PSEG. He says he doesn’t emit as much carbon as his competition. That means he’d be in a position to sell carbon permits that the proposed legislation would create. And that would make his nuclear-and-gas plants even more powerful.

Ralph Izzo: No pun intended. Yes we would be in a strong position.

Without legislation, Izzo says he’s been holding off on multibillion-dollar investments in nuclear, wind and solar energy.

Izzo: It’s just that without a price on carbon, business leaders — whether it’s energy or construction — we can’t make those investments.

Environmental activists organized these corporations, from Nike to eBay. They’re urging Congress to push through a climate change bill before a December conference in Copenhagen to forge a new global-emissions treaty.

I’m Jill Barshay for Marketplace.