Welcome to Connect the Dots – a newsletter from ClimateVoice focused on the connection between companies, influence and climate policy. I joined the team as Co-Executive Director in March and am delighted to step in as editor as ClimateVoice launches our latest campaign. Read on to learn more – including how companies and employees can take action to lead on climate policy engagement.
This issue is all about our new campaign, Escape the Chamber, which spotlights the role of trade associations such as the U.S Chamber of Commerce in obstructing climate policy progress. The Washington Post did an outstanding job reporting on the campaign and quoted our very own Bill Weihl saying companies “need to know that people see the misalignment and hypocrisy in their complicity with the Chamber.”
Obstruction by powerful trade associations continues to be a central roadblock impeding progress on climate policy. Groups like the Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of Manufacturers leverage their influence to obstruct climate policy progress in the U.S. at the federal, state, and local levels. We believe that weakening trade associations’ power to obstruct progress is a critical lever, opening up space for pro-climate companies to proactively support bold climate action and accelerate the pace of change at all levels of government.
Action Items
ClimateVoice launched a new campaign last week calling on corporate members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to stop obstructing climate policy by leaving the U.S. Chamber and leading on climate advocacy.
We urge you to join our movement in calling for more accountability.
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While you’re at it, help us spread the word and share this newsletter with your friends and colleagues.
The Big Picture
Leave the Chamber and Lead
Last month was all about trade associations and how these groups continue to mount large-scale opposition to climate action. You might have noticed we paid particular attention to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber).
This month we’re talking about the new ClimateVoice campaign – “Escape the Chamber”, launched last week to address the Chamber’s ongoing obstruction.
We are calling on companies who are members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to do two things:
- LEAVE the Chamber
- LEAD efforts to enact ambitious climate policy
The first part of this campaign is simple. Despite surface-level changes in their public messaging around climate, the Chamber has consistently obstructed meaningful action. Though some companies have pursued a strategy of effecting change from within, this strategy has failed. It is time to take a new approach and end the hypocrisy of giving money and social license to an organization that consistently represents the most environmentally harmful positions of the oil and gas industry. It is time to leave.
The second part of this campaign is about promoting positive action and propelling pro-climate policies forward. ClimateVoice is asking companies to counter the Chamber’s climate obstruction by speaking up and dedicating real resources to advocate for climate action. ClimateVoice is asking companies to lead.
For companies this looks like:
- Publicly distancing themselves from the U.S. Chamber’s positions and statements that do not align with strong climate action and leadership;
- Consistently and forcefully lobbying for bold and just climate policies at the federal, state, and local levels;
- Aligning political contributions with climate leadership and action; and
- Leading or joining pro-climate coalitions in advocating strongly for pro-climate policies.
With your help, over the coming months we aim to disrupt the U.S. Chamber’s obstruction and counter it with powerful influence to propel pro-climate policies forward.
Check out this video for more on the Chamber’s anti-climate record, and read more on this below.
The Nitty Gritty
The Chamber vs. The Climate (2022-2023)
In last month’s issue we looked at some of the U.S. Chamber’s climate obstructionist actions over the past 5+ years. However, the last twelve months alone paint an extremely egregious picture.
May 2023
Fought against tough EPA power plant rules
The EPA released a proposal for strong power plant regulations designed to cut carbon pollution, which has the potential to be a very significant federal climate policy addressing the power sector. Many leading environmental groups have praised the proposal, several noting that they’d like to see the regulation go even further. Adoption of the rules would avoid carbon dioxide pollution “equivalent to the annual emissions of 137 million passenger vehicles, or about half of the cars on the road today.”
The Chamber responded with a statement saying “EPA’s new power plant regulations go too far, too fast,” and additionally released a study calling into question the methodology used to develop the rule. This is a common tactic in obstructing climate action.
Public comments on the proposed rule closed on August 8th, 2023.
March 2023
Praised polluting Willow Project
The Willow Project is a ConocoPhillip’s endeavor to drill hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in Alaska’s North Slope, and if completed will release 9.2 million metric tons of carbon pollution into the atmosphere each year.
The Chamber described this oil drilling project on public land as a “win for energy security and for Alaska families.” Yet indigenous tribes and environmental groups have sued to stop the project because it negatively impacts local communities in multiple ways.
December 2022
Backed controversial permitting reform
The Chamber commended Senator Manchin’s permitting reform amendment, which proposed fast-tracking the Mountain Valley Pipeline. If constructed, it would transport methane gas across parts of West Virginia and Virginia, through predominantly rural, low-income Indigenous communities, and would undermine the country’s efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions.
November 2022
Opposed EPA methane standards
These standards are designed to reduce emissions of methane, one of the most potent and harmful greenhouse gasses, from both new and existing oil and gas operations. After carbon dioxide (CO2), methane accounts for about 20% of global emissions.
The Chamber submitted comments to the EPA expressing its opposition and contesting the legal authority of the EPA to impose these standards.
August 2022
Lobbied against historic $369 billion IRA climate bill
The Chamber opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, the most important climate legislation to be passed in decades, saying the “legislation includes taxes that would discourage investment and undermine economic growth and price controls that would limit American innovation.”
For a Deeper Dive
What Does the Chamber Have to Say?
For its part, the Chamber will say that it does care about the climate and is taking appropriate steps to address the issue. In fact, the Chamber has a page on their website dedicated to climate change where it states that “inaction is not an option.”
While it is true that the Chamber’s position has evolved, going from worse to bad is not enough of an improvement. In fact, this PR shift is a different kind of dangerous–one where the Chamber can hide its harmful anti-climate lobbying behind a green-hued curtain, avoiding or delaying the scrutiny of it and its members by the public.
The Chamber supports a very select set of climate issues and then uses that as the public face of its climate engagement. Meanwhile, most of its resources and political power are driving in the other direction.
InfluenceMap puts it best, in their most recent report on the Chamber’s climate policy engagement: “It appears that the Chamber has adopted a tactic of issuing high-level, nominally positive statements on climate-related issues at the same time that it offers detailed opposition to relevant items of legislation and regulation.”
The chart below is a great summary of the unevenness of the Chamber’s climate positioning.
We shared the chart below last month, but some pictures never get old. If the Chamber is truly serious about taking meaningful action, why are its positions on climate policy so much more oppositional than its members (even some of those in the fossil fuel industry)?
The evidence is clear and overwhelming.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce continues to play an influential role delaying, quashing, and obstructing public policy for climate action. Many of its members are taking climate action, and even say they support public policy – but are silent in the face of the Chamber’s ongoing obstruction. It’s time for them to leave the Chamber and lead on climate policy. Add your voice to the growing chorus calling for businesses to speak up and counter the Chamber’s obstruction!
Coming soon...
Next month we’ll be taking a closer look at lobbyists and how this profession is often enmeshed with the fossil fuel industry.
Have a specific question about Responsible Corporate Advocacy that you’d like us to address? Shoot your questions to us with subject line "Connect the Dots."