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The company says it's "the leading institutional equity investor in U.S. wind power projects, leading transactions representing approximately 45% of the equity invested in that market from 2003 through 2008" and it "has invested (or committed to invest) a total of $2.4B for its own portfolio in renewable energy transactions."

Also, the company is a founding member of the New York Mercantile Exchange's Green Exchange, a trading market for financial derivatives based on environmental emissions such as carbon dioxide.

In the end, Dimon's energy policy may prove as risky as subprime lending. Raising energy prices during an economic crisis will lead to reduced consumer spending, which will further jeopardize the ability of the bank's customers to pay for credit card debt and meet mortgage payments.

While Dimon concedes some of the money from energy taxes should be returned to citizens, there is no guarantee the government will provide rebates, especially given the nation's exploding deficits.

Moreover, playing politics with energy policy could backfire on JPMorgan as the consequences of the reduction in coal use reverberate through the economy. According to Resource Media, $19.2 billion of proposed coal-fired power projects were cancelled in 2008 and just this month, Dynegy, an electricity producer, cancelled a joint venture to build coal plants around the country.

Since coal produces half of our electricity and wind supplies about 1%, America can't replace coal anytime soon. Moreover, wind power has serious drawbacks - it's an intermittent source of energy and it requires massive investments in transmission lines to bring electricity from remote areas to cities. It's far from being ready for prime time.

In reality, the U.S. will be faced with spiking electricity rates and shortages if coal-generated electricity ends without a viable substitute. So whatever gains JPMorgan makes on its investments from the growth of renewable energy will likely be overcome by the devastating effect of electricity shortages on the broader economy.

It seems the major lesson of the current economic crisis has escaped Dimon. Even though JPMorgan avoided the initial wave from the subprime meltdown, the bank's earnings are being swept away because of the ripple effect of the housing bubble on the entire economy. In the same manner, the economic consequences of anti-global warming regulations such as cap-and-trade will harm all companies -- even those being managed by the so-called "best" managers.

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Tom Borelli, PhD is the editor of FreeEnterpriser.com, a manager for the Free Enterprise Action Fund, and a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research . The opinions expressed are his own.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.

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