Boston Globe on US Chamber: "Off the Rails"

In a blistering editorial today, the Boston Globe took aim at the US Chamber of Commerce and its opposition to comprehensive climate change legislation, writing, “The chamber went completely off the rails in August.”

The editorial goes on to praise the companies that have recently quit the chamber or publicly criticized it: “It is refreshing to see three energy companies - the nuclear power operator Exelon; Pacific Gas and Electric; and New Mexico’s largest electricity provider, PNM - quitting the US Chamber of Commerce over that organization’s increasingly shrill, doom-saying opposition to climate change legislation in Washington. The chamber claims that limits on greenhouse gas emissions by Congress or the Environmental Protection Agency would be ‘a job killer,’ would ‘completely shut the country down,’ or, even worse, ‘virtually destroy the United States.’”

In fact, the editorial continues, “The verdict has long been in from the vast majority of climate scientists that humans are changing the atmosphere. What’s becoming increasingly clear is that fighting climate change is good for business, because restrictions on carbon emissions will foster innovations in efficiency and renewable-energy technologies.”

-- Suzanne Bopp