Tuesday, September 15, 2009 4:30 PM
NRDC Targets Chamber Over Climate Bill
By Amy Harder, NationalJournal.com
The Natural Resources Defense Council launched a new Web site today to expose what the group sees as devious acts by front groups and coalitions working against climate change legislation. Their target on Day 1? U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue and his board membership with Union Pacific, which ships large amounts of coal across the country and has expressed concerns about the negative impact climate change legislation could have on its business.
NRDC Climate Campaign Director Pete Altman argues that Donohue's board membership is a conflict of interest. The chamber has opposed climate change legislation even though many of its members do not, Altman said, pointing to a letter Johnson & Johnson sent to Donohue in April urging him to represent a more "full range of views."
The chamber wouldn't comment specifically on NRDC's claim, but stressed in a statement that "all of the chamber's policy's decisions go through our policy committee. It's a Democratic process."
NRDC spokesman Michael Oko said the "silly summer" full of fake "energy citizen" rallies prompted his group to launch the new Web site, which is called "Fight Clean Energy Smears." Donohue's membership is just one of many issues on the agenda, Oko said, also referencing fake letters sent to lawmakers and "Astroturf" demonstrations organized by groups like the American Petroleum Institute.
The site is designed to "show who's behind different front and coalition groups, who's behind the funding lines," Oko said. "We're going to connect the dots between their public positions and what's going on behind the scenes."
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