Pacific Gas & Electric Company Leaves U.S. Chamber of Commerce Over Its Global Warming Denialism

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/22/pge-leaves-chamber/


One of the biggest opponents of climate change legislation has been the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the “world’s largest business federation” that calls itself the “voice of business.” The Chamber has claimed the Obama administration is secretly hiding evidence that climate change isn’t a real threat, claimed that global warming regulations would “strangle the economy,” and even called for a new “Scopes trial” to call into question the science of global warming.

Today, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced that it is quitting the Chamber over its “extreme position” on climate change:

PG&E Corp. (PCG) said Tuesday it is leaving the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over objections to what its top executive called the chamber’s “extreme position on climate change.”

In a letter to the U.S. Chamber published on PG&E’s blog, www next100.com, PG& E Chairman and Chief Executive Peter Darbee wrote that company employees “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.”

PG&E isn’t the only company the Chamber has angered with its global warming denialist views. Yesterday, Nike, one of the co-founders of the climate change action coalition Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy (BICEP), circulated a statement denouncing the Chamber’s efforts to attack the science surrounding climate change:

Nike fundamentally disagrees with the US Chamber of Commerce’s position on climate change and is concerned and deeply disappointed with the US Chamber’s recently filed petition challenging the EPA’s administrative authority and action on this critically important issue.

Nike believes that climate change is an urgent issue affecting the world today and that businesses and their representative associations need to take an active role to invest in sustainable business practices and innovative solutions to address the issue. It is not a time for debate but instead a time for action and we believe the Chamber’s recent petition sets back important work currently being undertaken by EPA on this issue.

The right-wing trade organization National Association of Manufacturers has similarly experienced a disbandment of its membership over the climate change issue. It remains to be seen whether the discontent among their members will change these organizations’ extremist views on global warming.



PG&E Corp. quits US Chamber Of Commerce’s “extreme position on climate change.”
http://climateprogress.org/2009/09/22/utility-pge-quits-us-chamber-of-commerces-extreme-position-on-climate-change/
September 22, 2009

In a letter to the Chamber, PG&E Chairman and Chief Executive Peter Darbee wrote:

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. 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.

(more at link)

The US Chamber of Commerce is a GOP/Corporate tool. I hope other large corporations follow.

commerce when chamber of horrors or death would seem more descriptive. :P

Wow! and Bravo!

I do a lot of their local shows and it always pains me to do so. Their idea is business and corporate profit above all. Screw those pasty white mofos. I applaud PG&E for this decision.

once we inevitably "recognition" the impacts climate change and choose to do something about them. Their shareholders won't let them invest in cleaner technologies now, because there's no financial impetus to do so. Without regulation, there's no financial impetus.

Sure, it would be nice if corporations just "did the right thing", but they're obliged to maximize profits, not goodwill.

And piss on the Limbaugh zombies at the CofC.

hat off and all that

Maybe more Chamber members will follow suit!!