PG&E quits chamber of commerce over climate change debate

One of America's largest utilities, California's Pacific Gas and Electric (PG &E), has quit the US Chamber of Commerce, a three-million-member business organisation, over its position as an active climate change sceptic.

In a letter to the influential Chamber of Commerce, PG&E chairman and chief executive Peter Darbee said "fundamental differences" over climate change had caused it to quit the group.

The letter criticised the Chamber for taking an extreme position on climate change, which Darbee said does not represent the range of views among Chamber members.

In particular, he took exception to the Chamber's recent campaign to organise a challenge to the accepted science on climate change reminiscent of the 1920s "Scopes Trial" that challenged the theory of evolution.

"We find it dismaying that the Chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored," Darbee wrote. "In our opinion, an intellectually honest argument over the best policy response to the challenges of climate change is one thing; disingenuous attempts to diminish or distort the reality of these challenges are quite another."

He added: "I fear [the Chamber] has forfeited an incredible chance to play a constructive leadership role on one of the most important issues our country may ever face."

No doubt the final straw for PG&E was last month's announcement by the Chamber that it wanted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to hold public hearings on the science of climate change. The Chamber filed a 21-page petition with the EPA, asking it to approve hearings so that the nation can have a " credible weighing" of the scientific documentation that global warming endan gers human health.

Chamber president Thomas Donohue said carbon dioxide regulation by federal regulators would "strangle the economy".

PG&E is the latest in a line of companies to express disquiet at the stance of the Chamber of Commerce and other business lobby groups seeking to oppose the proposed US climate bill.

Duke Energy recently left the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy after the coalition was embroiled in a scandal over fraudulent lobbying tactics, while a number of new business groups lobbying for tough new climate regulations have also emerged, such as the high-profile US Climate Action Partnership and the recently formed Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy group, which is backed by a number of high-profile brands, such as Nike, Starbucks and Levi Strauss.