US firms quit Chamber of Commerce over climate change position

Nike and Johnson & Johnson among corporations criticising business organisation over chamber's resistance to 'cap-and-trade' legislation
Andrew Clark in New York
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 September 2009 18.09 BST
The largest American business federation, the US Chamber of Commerce, has suffered a rash of high-profile walkouts as multinational companies become uncomfortable with the organisation's hard-line opposition to measures tackling climate change.
In a sign of mounting acceptance in the business community of a need for action on carbon emissions, big names including the sportswear manufacturer Nike and the household products empire Johnson & Johnson have attacked the chamber for its refusal to back "cap-and-trade" legislation supported by the Obama administration.
This week, the largest US nuclear power generator, Exelon, resigned from the chamber over its environmental policy, following two fellow utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric and PNM Resources.
In a speech to an environmental energy group in Chicago, Exelon's chief executive, John Rowe, told his audience that "the rat must smell the cheese" through incentives for green energy. He said he regretted that congressional Republicans and business organisations failed to "recognise the reality" that carbon controls were inevitable and that some were using greenhouse gas legislation as a "cudgel" against the president.
"Because of their stridency against carbon legislation, Exelon has decided not to renew its membership in the US chamber this year," said Rowe.
With three million members and roots stretching back a century, the chamber describes itself as the world's largest business organisation. It operates from premises directly opposite the White House in Washington. But discomfort about its policies came to a head last month when a senior chamber official proposed a "Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" to evaluate global warming, comparing such a move to a famed 1925 courtroom confrontation in Tennessee in which a teacher was convicted for teaching evolution, rather than the Bible's version of creation.
"It would be evolution versus creationism," William Kovacs, the chamber's vice-president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs, told the Los Angeles Times. "It would be the science of climate change on trial."
The chamber has since clarified its position, saying it wants public hearings on the degree of public danger caused by greenhouse gases, rather than on climate science in general. And it says it would welcome legislation, providing it fulfils several conditions – including preserving US jobs and adopting an international, rather than merely US-wide, stance.
Many US companies fear that unless they support "cap-and-trade" proposals in Congress, they could face much more severe measures. The US environmental protection agency could invoke powers to regulate carbon as a harmful emission under an existing law, the clean air act.
Responding both to public opinion and to the long-term economic implications of inaction, more than 30 large US corporations have joined an alliance called the US Climate Action Partnership, which presses for swift legislation on emissions.
Critics feel that the US Chamber of Commerce is out of step with this trend. Earlier this year, Johnson & Johnson asked the chamber to stop making public pronouncements on climate change that failed to "reflect the full range of views" of members. Pacific Gas & Electric accused the body of "extreme rhetoric and obstructionist tactics". Nike, which faces shareholder pressure on the controversy, said it "fundamentally disagrees" with the chamber's position, describing climate change as an "urgent" issue: "It is not a time for debate but instead a time for action."