Companies Take a Stand to Support Climate Change Legislation
San Francisco-based power utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) abandoned its membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in protest over the organization's "extreme" position on climate change last week. Suggesting that this might be the start of a broader movement: a few days later, the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) did the same thing.
The Chamber, a lobbying group that represents some three million businesses, had called for the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a trail on climate science, to debate whether climate change is a result of human activity. They’ve referred to this as the “Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century.”
PG&E Chairman and Chief Executive Peter Darbee said that the Chamber’s position does not represent the opinions of Chamber members; in fact, many of the Chamber’s dues-paying members have expressed their commitment to meaningful climate change legislation. "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 said. “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."
PG&E belongs to the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, and Darbee praised that group for its "constructive, consensus-driven" approach. Meanwhile, he said, the Chamber has "forfeited an incredible chance to play a constructive leadership role on one of the most important issues our country may ever face.”
The Chamber is alienating itself from its membership with its views about climate science, agreed Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s also a head scratcher,” he said, “because the science is so clear and the needed response is so attractive from a business perspective. A responsible strategy to address climate change will create investment, growth and market opportunities for so many of the companies that once relied on the Chamber to illuminate the future.”
What PG&E and PNM have done is right in line with the recent actions of other major companies quitting industry groups: recently both Duke Energy and Alstom gave up their membership in the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy to protest that organization’s opposition to climate change legislation.
-- Suzanne Bopp
