U.S. chamber faces dissent from big firms on climate

Duke Energy Corp Chief Executive Jim Rogers has long advocated regulation of carbon dioxide emissions and threw his weight behind the House version of the bill. He has no plans to give up his seat on the Chamber's board, a spokesman said.

“We work with the Chamber on lots of different issues, but we don't always see eye-to-eye with them,” said Tom Williams, a spokesman for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company.

Health care company Johnson & Johnson in April wrote Chamber officials a letter asking that their public comments on climate change “reflect the full range of views, especially for those of Chamber members advocated for Congressional action.”

Many of the nation's largest companies have changed their tone on climate change in recent years, with some regarding regulations as inevitable and saying they would prefer the certainty that can only come when laws are passed. Businesses have also ramped up their green marketing, promoting themselves as environmentally concerned — an image that does not mesh with aggressively fighting proposed climate regulations.

“It's a really interesting, dramatic turn of events, and unprecedented in nature, that this many major companies would stand up and say: 'You have it wrong,'” said Anne Kelly, director of climate policy at Ceres, a network of socially concerned investors, companies and public interest groups that collectively oversee some US$7 trillion in assets.

To be sure, there are many loud voices within corporate America that oppose the proposed regulations.

The incoming CEO of oil company Chevron Corp, John Watson, told a meeting of Chamber members on Wednesday that the proposals “would lay heavy new costs on every family and business in the U.S.”

Chamber spokesman Wohlschlegel also noted that members of the organization dissatisfied with its position on climate have the option of joining its policy-setting environment committee, which currently has about 125 members.

The Chamber's lobbying efforts extend far beyond environmental issues — it has had a loud voice on both health care and financial regulatory reform, for instance.

Officials at Caterpillar Inc., Dow Chemical Co and International Business Machines Corp all pointed out that their companies belong to the Chamber in part because of the breadth of its influence.

“Our involvement with the Chamber is bigger than a single issue,” said IBM spokesman Jay Cadmus. “There are going to be times when you don't agree.”

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