After Calling for Climate Action, US Chamber of Commerce Pushes Pro-Fossil Fuel Agenda

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A new campaign targeting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its lobbying on climate change issues published a report today criticizing the pro-business lobbying and advocacy groupĀ for continuing to push for pro-fossil fuel policies despite recognizing that climate change isĀ real.

For years, the Chamber opposed action to slow climate change, prompting activists to dub the organization the ā€œChamber ofĀ Carbon.ā€

But in 2019, the Chamber generated headlines in the environmental press by adding a section to its website titled ā€œClimate Change: The Path Forward.ā€

ā€œOur climate is changing and humans are contributing to these changes,ā€ the websiteĀ says. ā€œInaction is simply not anĀ option.ā€

The new report, authored by the Change the Chamber campaign, finds that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has since lobbied on both sides of the issue, reporting 57 separate lobbying efforts from 2019 to summer 2020 that relate to energy and the environment. The organization’s efforts were successful on a dozen ofĀ those items — all of which, the report says, ā€œwere pro-fossil fuelĀ outcomes.ā€

For example, the Chamber had successfully lobbied against the use of the National Environmental Policy Act, theĀ bedrock U.S. environmental law,Ā to measure the climate impacts of new fossil fuel infrastructure. It helped to defeat proposed moratoriums on offshore drilling, the report says, and supported four high-level Trump administration nominees who’ve taken pro-fossil fuel positions, including Energy Secretary Dan Brouillete and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s James Danly, whose confirmation had left the traditionally bipartisan commission temporarily stacked 3-1 withĀ Republicans.

It may be little surprise that the Chamber’s pro-fossil fuel advocacy has found a receptive audience in the Trump administration, but Change the Chamber, a young adult–led coalition,Ā asserts that the business lobbying group’sĀ endorsement of pro-climate goals was relatively passive compared to its active advocacy on its pro-fossil fuel goals. It also suggests that the Chamber has sought to preserve the Republican majority in the Senate, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into supporting Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Cory Gardner in Colorado, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Joni Ernst in Iowa, and Roger Marshall inĀ Kansas.

The new report also faults the Chamber for its legal advocacy on climate. ā€œThe Chamber was involved in 14 energy and environment lawsuits in 2020 alone, either as a plaintiff or as an amicus curiae [friend of the court],ā€ the report, titled ā€œThe Chamber and Climate 2019-2020,ā€ says. ā€œThe Chamber supported the interests of the fossil fuel industry in nine cases, those of the petrochemical industry in one, and industrial polluters inĀ four.ā€

ā€œWe are disappointed to report that the evidence overwhelmingly shows that the Chamber continues to promote fossil fuel interests over science-based climate action,ā€ the report concludes. ā€œIts recent pivot on climate is, so far,Ā cosmetic.ā€

In the not-very-distant past, the Chamber has opposed action on climate change and continued to question whether climate science was yet clear enough to justify action. In 2017, the Chamber co-sponsored a report that the Trump administration cited as it announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Its 2017 policy priorities included a call to ā€œOppose efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through existing environmental statutes.ā€ (The Chamber now says it ā€œsupports U.S. participation in the ParisĀ Agreement.ā€)

In 2016, the Chamber called for more climate science research, writing that a ā€œdeeper understanding of the issues and developing science associated with the environment and climate changeā€ would influence climateĀ policies.

And in 2014, the then-head of the Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy (now called the Global Energy Institute but still affiliated with the Chamber), testified before Congress that she believed it was not clear what was causing climate change.Ā She testified, ā€œIt is caused by lots of different things, and you can’t say that climate change is only caused byĀ humans.ā€

The US Chamber of Commerce did not immediately reply to questions sent by DeSmog about the report’sĀ findings.

The Change the Chamber campaign, which officially launched in July, describes itself as a coalition of young adults, including current and former university students, and many of its participating organizations are student-run.Ā ā€œI got involved in the campaign because I felt like my individual sustainability practices weren’t enough in terms of the scale of the problem we’re dealing with globally,ā€ says research and communications specialist EmmaĀ Marotta.

ā€œI found myself dwarfed by the impact of these corporations in terms of greenhouseĀ gas emissions and legislative power,ā€ Marotta told DeSmog. ā€œComing together as a coalition and working with corporations offered a way forward that finally feltĀ tangible.ā€

The Change the Chamber campaign calls on companies including PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Walt Disney, and Yum Brands (the company behind Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut) to either quit the Chamber of Commerce or to push the Chamber to end its pro-fossil fuelĀ lobbying.

While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce does not disclose its members, the campaign traces donations from each of those large corporations to the Chamber in recentĀ years.

Main Image: U.S. Chamber of Commerce logo.Ā Credit: Maryland GovPics/Anthony DePanise,Ā CC BYĀ 2.0
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Sharon Kelly is an attorney and freelance writer based in Philadelphia. She has reported for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, National Wildlife, Earth Island Journal, and a variety of other publications. Prior to beginning freelance writing, she worked as a law clerk for the ACLU ofĀ Delaware.

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