America's largest utility gives US Chamber the boot over global warming denial

On Tuesday, September 29, 2009, the CEO of Excelon, John Rowe, announced in a press release that his company would not be renewing the US Chamber of Commerce membership, due to the Chamber’s continued denial and disconnects over issues of global warming and climate change.

“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,” said Rowe. “Putting a price on carbon is essential, because it will force us to do the cheapest things, like energy efficiency, first.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has many members, who support a strong climate and energy bill, and don't appreciate being lumped in with the Chamber's protests. Nike has come out publicly to support the Obama administrations effort to limit greenhouse gases and Johnson & Johnson wrote a letter to the Chamber asking them not to list their company on any documents criticizing the climate bill.

According the Center for Biological Diversity, The Chamber actually filed a lawsuit against the EPA over a waiver that was issued in California:

The EPA issued a waiver to California under the Clean Air Act in May after an announcement by the Obama administration that it would adopt uniform federal standards to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase fuel economy for model years 2011-2016 cars and trucks.

Under the Bush administration, the EPA had denied the waiver even though California met all the statutory requirements for its issuance, and even though no California waiver request had been denied in four decades.

“The Obama administration’s decision to issue the waiver was not only legally correct, but plain common sense,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center. “This lawsuit has little chance of success and does a great disservice to the business members that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Automobile Dealers Association supposedly represent. Reduction of greenhouse emissions from the U.S. auto fleet is critical to our efforts to combat global warming and good for the economy.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the largest lobbying force in the nation, promoting a right-wing agenda as the “voice of business.”

According to a Climate Progress report: Exelon has staked out an industry-leading position on the issue of climate change and, in the spirit of Daniel Burnham, we have launched our own “not so little plan” to eliminate the equivalent of our entire carbon footprint by the year 2020. I do not know if it will stir men’s souls, but I hope it will stir policymakers and others in our industry to action.

The US Senate is set to take up talks on the cap and trade climate bill next month. The starting point will be the Boxer-Kerry Bill that will be released on Wednesday, after nine months of closed-door meetings.

Excelon joins Pacific Gas & Electric, and PNM resources as the third energy company to give the draconian US Chamber of Commerce the boot in just one week’s time.