The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s attitude towards climate change has recently resulted in many high profile departures. From HarvardBusiness.org:

What do Exelon, Pacific Gas & Electric, PNM Resources, and Nike all have in common? In the last week they all dropped out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the group’s stance on climate-change legislation.

Sadly, the Chamber’s COO told the Wall Street Journal that these defections will not change the Chamber’s misguided positions, including constant carping about the potential costs (almost always overstated) of climate change and calling for a mock “trial” on the science of climate change.

Here’s why the Chamber is out to lunch. First, tackling climate change is good for business and improves the competitiveness of our industries and the country as a whole. And, oh, on a related note, the Chamber is increasingly out of step with its own members — because they do see how going green will help their businesses.

Science has been instrumental in expanding commerce, but William Kovacs, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s vice president, is clearly waging war on science by claiming that there should be some type of Scopes Monkey Trial over global warming. From Los Angeles Times:

The battle over the Democrats’ cap-and-trade bill that would cut fuel emission standards and reward energy-saving conversions is causing a rift in a traditionally Republican sanctuary.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, long a lobbying powerhouse in Washington and a group most of the time aligned with Republican causes, is exploding with resignations and tensions over the issue.

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The Chamber claims that limits on greenhouse gas emissions by Congress or the Environmental Protection Agency would be “a job killer’’ that would “completely shut the country down’’ and “virtually destroy the United States.’’ William Kovacs, the Chamber’s vice president for environmental regulation, is advocating a kind of Scopes Monkey Trial over global warming that would put “the science of climate change on trial.’’

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The Chamber claims that it is just doing its job — protecting 3 million American companies and their jobs from pointless or costly regulation by Washington. But Democrats are doing cartwheels. “It’s an earthquake,” said Washington state Democrat Jay Inslee.

Last Wednesday, Nike resigned from the board of the United States Chamber of Commerce. Today, due to the Chamber’s opposition to federal attempts in regulating greenhouse gases, Apple announced it will leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. From San Jose Mercury News:

Apple announced Monday that it is resigning from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because it objects to the chamber’s recent comments opposing federal efforts to limit greenhouse gases.

Apple is the fourth company, and the first tech company, to part ways with the powerful business federation because of global warming.

“Apple is committed to protecting the environment and the communities in which we operate around the world,” Catherine Novelli, Apple’s vice president of worldwide government affairs, said in a letter to Thomas Donahue, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s president and CEO. “We strongly object to the Chamber’s recent comments opposing the EPA’s effort to limit greenhouse gases.”

Why leave? From the Triple Pundit:

There is some speculation that the reason the utilities left the chamber has at least as much to do with green backs as going green. Many utilities have made serious investments in renewable or carbon-free energy, and the value of those investments would naturally go up with the price of carbon emissions, should cap-and-trade be instated.

But Nike and Apple do not have such investments on the line. Of course, if one had to pick two non-utilities most likely to leave the Chamber of Commerce over a political issue like climate change, progressive and iconoclastic Nike and Apple would certainly be at the top of the list.

But exiting the country’s oldest, and most powerful business lobby is still a dramatic stance, and one apparently taken on principle (regardless of the PR benefits). No doubt both companies are hoping their move will inspire other corporations standing on the sidelines to take the plunge — or force the chamber to pull its head out of the sand.

The utilities, for their own part, cited reports that the chamber wanted Congress to begin a “Scopes monkey trial” of the validity of global warming science, as impetus to jump ship.

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