It turns out that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce only has 300,000 members, not the โmore than 3 millionโ it claimed to represent just a day ago, before Mother Jones magazine questioned the business lobbyโs inflated numbers.
The Chamber has now โquietly backed offโ the 3 million figure, according to Mother Jones, which reports todayย that:
By contrast, the 300,000 figure, which appears nowhere on the Chamberโs website, is cited in the news database Lexis-Nexis only three timesโinfrequently enough to be mistaken for a typo.โ
Getting called out for such โsemantic tricksโ is the least of the Chamberโs problems these days.
The Huffington Post reports that MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, the holding company owned by multi-billionaire Ronald Perelman, is debating whether to leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its extreme climate position and recent โScopes Monkey Trialโ challenge to the EPA over the Clean Air Act.
The Chamber has been losing members โ real members out of its actual 300,000 or less total โ at a rate of several each week lately.ย Apple was the most recent in a string of high-profile defections including Exelon, Pacific Gas & Electric, PNM Resources, Nike, Levi Strauss & Co. and PSEG.ย
The exodus has weakened the Chamberโs credibility on the Hill at a critical time when business leaders are descending on Washington to lobby Congress to pass strong climate and energy legislation. Pete Altman at NRDCโs Switchboard blog has compiled a running tally of editorials from around the country criticizing the Chamberโs intransigence on climate change in a post titled โThe U.S. Chamberโs Continuing Climate Credibility Crisis.โ
Even the White House has joined in the Chamber pile-on.ย Energy Secretary Steven Chu told reporters โitโs wonderfulโ to see so many companies quit the Chamber of Commerce. โI think companies like that – Exelon and others – are saying we have recognized the reality,โ Chu said. โThey are saying we canโt be a party to this denial and foot-dragging.โ
โI would encourage the Chamber of Commerce to realize the economic opportunity that the United States can lead in a new industrial revolution,โ Chu said.
Pressure is now building on the Chamber from multiple fronts.
Green Century Capital Management, which manages environmentally friendly mutual funds, and a group of investment-focused organizations sent letters this week to 14 corporations urging them to end their Chamber memberships (and in many cases their memberships with the National Association of Manufacturers).ย Read the letters over at EnviroKnow.
The Silicon Valley Leadership Council, which represents around 300 IT and tech employers including Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, joined with the Environmental Defense Action Fund and Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network on a print ad campaign this week urging the Chamber to change its ways and support climate legislation in Congress.
โSilicon Valley is ready to lead the world in the next great technological revolution: clean energy,โ the ad states. โThatโs why weโve been so disappointed by the opposition of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to clean energy legislation now moving through Congress.โ
A coalition of progressive activists and attorneys just launched StopTheChamber.com this week as well, knocking not only the Chamberโs climate position, but also its role as โan extremist political organization dedicated to corrupting American democracy by elevating the profits of big corporations over the well being of the citizens they serve.โย The campaign is calling on Congress to investigate the Chamber on multiple fronts, including fraud, false tax filings and campaign finance violations.
But the Chamberโs backwards stance on climate change remains the focus of most critics at present.ย Mother Jones magazine has done several excellent pieces recently explaining why, including an article titled โInside the Chamber of Carbon.โ The piece notes that the Chamberโs โaggressively narrow climate policyโ may violate its own policy-making process since the full board of directors never formally voted on the matter, as is customarily required by the Chamberโs procedures.ย Chamber CEO Tom Donohue rebuts that argument, telling reporters that the board voted on climate issues, but they were part of a โconsent calendarโ where members voted on several items at once.ย (Sounds sort of like a Congressional rider or earmark where pet projects are tacked onto larger bills and never face sunshine or scrutiny by the full membership.)
A Chamber insider told E&E news that the real thrust of the Chamberโs campaign to derail the House-passed energy and climate bill came from some of the groupโs major donors, who worked behind the scenes to influence Chamber activities through staff-level contact.ย โCompanies with the largest contributions tend to hold more sway with chamber staff on setting final policy positions,โ according to the anonymous official.
Despite the growing pressure to change its ways, the Chamber remains stuck in the past, clinging to its diminishing role as โthe voice of business,โ while many major U.S. businesses leave it behind to forge ahead on climate and energy solutions.
โIf people want to attack us, bring em on,โ Chamber CEO Tom Donohue told reporters.
โWe are not changing where we are,โ he said. โWeโve thought long and hard about what is important here and we are not going anywhere.โ
How long will that intransigence hold up?ย Will the Chamber remain relevant, or become the laughing stock of Washington, representing a dying breed of angry fossil-fuel-dependentย industrialists?
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