September 30, 2009

3 Comments

[UPDATED: Apple Quits Too] U.S. Chamber of Commerce Crumbling Over Opposition to Clean Energy Action

by Chris Hatch

Update: Apple has now quit the US Chamber of Commerce “effective immediately.” Citing the “climate crisis” and the Chamber’s obstructionist campaigns to delay climate legislation, Apple’s departing letter says in part:

“We would prefer that the chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis….”

Check out Reuters’ good overview of “The U.S. Chamber’s Climate Blunders”

Original post:

Energy utilities are leading a splintering of the American business community as companies that want federal clean energy and climate laws publicly walk from the US Chamber of Commerce.

Today Nike announced it would quit the Board of the Chamber, although it says it will stay on as a member “to advocate for climate change legislation” (threatening to “continue to evaluate our membership”) according to a statement posted at NRDC.

Companies like Nike and Johnson & Johnson have been fighting with the Chamber over its lobbying against federal clean energy and carbon restriction laws. But the real exodus began recently led by major energy utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric, and New Mexico’s PNM Resources. Then this week one of America’s biggest utilities Exelon announced it was leaving.

The splintering of the venerable US Chamber of Commerce is fascinating in its own right. But the bluntness of the public statements by departing companies is really worth attention:

Here’s PNM:

“At PNM Resources, we see climate change as the most pressing environmental and economic issue of our time. We have decided that we can be most productive by working with organizations that share our view on the need for thoughtful, reasonable climate change legislation and want to push that agenda forward in Congress.”

Here’s PG&E:

“We find it dismaying that the Chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored,” Darbee wrote.

“In our opinion, an intellectually honest argument over the best policy response to the challenges of climate change is one thing; disingenuous attempts to diminish or distort the reality of these challenges are quite another.”

“I fear it has forfeited an incredible chance to play a constructive leadership role on one of the most important issues our country may ever face.”

And Exelon:

“The carbon-based free lunch is over. But while we can’t fix our climate problems for free, the price signal sent through a cap-and-trade system will drive low-carbon investments in the most inexpensive and efficient way possible…. Putting a price on carbon is essential, because it will force us to do the cheapest things, like energy efficiency, first.”

The Chamber brought the controversy to a boiling point with its call for a “Scopes Monkey Trial of the 21st century” against global warming — seen as a blatantly political attempt to inflame creationist believers against climate legislation. The Chamber was forced to admit that the comparison was inappropriate but the organization has a history of efforts to use tax rage and “cheap energy”  to campaign against clean energy legislation (see NRDC) and the exodus continues.

And the Chamber is not the only association facing defectors. Duke Energy quit the National Association of Manufacturers this Spring after that organization ran tax rage ads against the House of Representatives’ cap and trade bill.

The controversy is well-timed — the U.S. Senate has begun consideration of the “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act” which proposes deeper carbon pollution cuts than the parallel bill passed by the House of Representatives.

Email This Post Permalink Share This

3 Responses so far...

1. Barry Saxifrage says:

   October 2, 2009 at 8:27 am

   “…and they’re starting to be willing to make a stink about it”

   Chris, I totally agree this is a huge, and game changing, shift in psychology that is emerging with “acceptance” of the climate reality.

   There have been rapid transitions whenever social stigma/prestige shifts on any issue. Just ask the “emperor without any clothes” how quickly tables can turn when you are caught in an unsupportable situation.

   The willingness to break some “china” is also happening more and more vocally at the national level now. Witness how Canada is criticized more and more bluntly and frequently for our refusal to deal at all with our over-the-top role in the crisis. Notice how developing nations that had been given a free pass like China, India and Brazil are feeling the pressure to set limits too.

   And now even the stirring of social stigma and backlash for personal hyper-carbon lifestyles are appearing. For years a person’s lifestyle carbon emissions have been the Voldemort of social interactions: “that which will not be named” in polite company.  But as more and more people accept the end of fossil fuel party the more they will see their future being trashed by people choosing to continue an over-the-top luxury-carbon lives. 

   As George Monbiot’s recently wrote in his widely read UK Guardian column about climate change: “…there’s a strong correlation between global warming and wealth…So where are the movements protesting about the stinking rich destroying our living systems? It’s time we had the guts to name the problem…it’s the rich.” Or to paraphrase Bill Clinton’s campaign: It’s the carbon stupid.

   There are a lot of carbon “emperors” out there at national, corporate and individual level about to find themselves “exposed” to ever more intense social stigma.
2. Chris Hatch says:

   October 1, 2009 at 10:05 am

   … and they’re starting to be willing to make a stink about it, break some china to get things done. Seems to me a critical stage in overcoming political inertia and fascinating that it’s happening in such traditionally hidebound sectors of industry. Dyer did his recent piece on climate and the slomo global talks and I thought he nailed a critical sticking point:

   “Everybody involved in the process understands the stakes and agrees on the goal. Almost everybody knows what the treaty will eventually look like, but they don’t believe they can yet sell that deal to the folks back home”
3. Barry Saxifrage says:

   September 30, 2009 at 7:46 pm

   The money quote is Exelon’s: “the carbon-based free lunch is over.”

   Major utilities are starting to admit what everyone has known in their hearts for a while now: fossil fuels are going away. Soon. There just isn’t any livable alternative.  And we are going to choose to kill fossil fuels off faster than many people are currently preparing to handle gracefully. We all know that too.

   Huge chunks of society, including major corporations and industries, are finally transitioning to the final stage of grief on the end of the fossil fuel party: “acceptance”. This is what you can hear in all these comments. Fossil fuels ARE going away and we had better get serious NOW because the window of opportunity for graceful transition is slamming shut.

   Transition will take time and requires national and global clarity and pricing rules to do it in time. These utilities are basically begging for this transition to happen ASAP.

   The regions and industries that continue to delay are going suffer. There just arem’t ANY other livable alternatives than a rapid de-carbonization.

   We all know that

   There is zero chance the rest of the world, and even most Canadians, will allow a Canadian lifestyle to continue that litters 18 TONNES of eco-toxic trash per person per year into their collapsing, ever more chaotic ecosystems.

   Even major utilities accept that now.

• Join UP
• Donate
• About
• Privacy Policy
• Disclaimer