By Ann Barlow, GreenPepper
Today, the third power company -– Exelon -- announced that it was quitting the U.S. Chamber because of the latter’s increasingly strident perspective on climate change. After the Chamber called for a ‘Scopes monkey trial’ on climate change, these energy companies (think on that for a minute) said enough is enough.
If energy companies that, like PG&E, still depend at least in part on heat-trapping fossil fuels to produce energy have thrown up their hands, then how much credibility can the Chamber continue to have? If you don’t want cap-and-trade, for example, because it’s going to cost your business money, ok. If shifting resources from old technologies and energy sources to new ones could make your business go away, fair enough. But a trial-type public hearing that challenges the basic science of burning fossil fuels? I’ll tell you who looks like the monkey.
The U.S. Chamber looks increasingly out of step not only with the mainstream, but with reality. Businesses that continue to depend on it to be their voice and source of wisdom do so at their own peril.