Amazon claims to champion clean energy. So why did it just help kill an emissions bill in Oregon?

A recent bill in Oregon would have required large data centers, cryptocurrency miners, and other big power users in the state to shift to 80% clean energy by 2030, and 100% by 2040. (The whole state reached 70% clean energy in 2022.) Amazon privately lobbied against the bill—despite the fact that the company presents itself as a climate leader, with a goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2040 itself. The bill died in a committee last week; Pam Marsh, the state representative who sponsored it, says Amazon helped kill it.

“Companies like Amazon continue to tout their own heroic measures while immediately lobbying against bills like this one in Oregon that would accelerate those same solutions at the speed and scale we need,” says Bill Weihl, a former tech company sustainability executive who now leads the nonprofit ClimateVoice, advocating for the tech industry to support stronger climate policy.