I’m a small business person with interests that I’d like to see addressed at the federal level, but certainly not along the lines proposed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as it aims to fuel the flames of ignorance by challenging the accepted science of climate change. As if we don’t have enough problems already. Let’s hope the Chamber’s members will rebel over its latest strategy.
According to various media sources, including MarketWatch, the Chamber has concluded that it is in its members’ interests to fight energy and climate change legislation. This, despite the fact that many of its members are active on the green front.
The Los Angeles Times quoted the Chamber’s senior environmental executive as saying: “It would be evolution versus creationism. … It would be the science of climate change on trial.” Just what this country needs in the midst of a deep recession and with an urgent (and long overdue) need for a cohesive, future-oriented national energy policy.
As Anna Fahey of Sightline Institute noted in the Puget Sound Business Journal:
The fact is, the scientific ‘trial’ is long over. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Academy of Sciences have judged the evidence and rendered their verdict: The soundest peer-reviewed science available overwhelmingly indicates that the threat of climate change is real, and threatens human health and welfare.
Instead of taking an intellectually honest route, and lobbying against cap-and-trade or any other single element on its merits, the Chamber has chosen to muddy the issue in an effort to postpone, and ultimately halt, any legislation on this front. The Chamber’s more-enlightened members should pressure their organization to abandon this strategy.
9.11.09
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