U.S. Chamber of Commerce
This business federation represents 3 million companies nationwide.

What They Want
The chamber has been roundly criticized for opposing climate change legislation, prompting a series of high-profile defections. Nonetheless, chamber officials maintain that they have been actively engaging on the issue. To wit: Bruce Josten, the chamber's executive vice president for government affairs, recently wrote a letter to Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla., commending the bipartisan framework laid out by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and emphasizing that the chamber "stands ready to work with Congress."

The recommendations the chamber sent to the Obama transition team after the presidential election laid out an energy plan with 13 pillars that the chamber says could be implemented without crippling the economy. It's essentially an "all of the above" plan, including offshore drilling and nuclear energy. In lauding Kerry's and Graham's efforts, Josten wrote that the framework "echoes the core principles that the chamber embeds in all of its communications on climate policy."

More specifically, the chamber supports a provision in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources bill that creates a new agency within the Energy Department -- a Clean Energy Deployment Administration -- that would provide financial incentives for advancing renewable energies.

As with many business coalitions that represent diverse memberships, the chamber has not taken an official position on cap-and-trade, a carbon tax or any other carbon pricing mechanism. It has said, though, that it wants legislation "to control and reduce greenhouse gases."

USCC has also continually pressed for countries, both industrialized and developing, to forge an international agreement in next month's climate talks in Copenhagen, but President Tom Donohue has acknowledged that passing a domestic bill first makes the most sense.

Deal Breakers

In his letter to the EPW leadership, Josten was clear that the chamber would continue opposing "bad policies" that could "jeopardize American jobs, create trade inequalities, leave open the Clean Air Act, open the door to CO2-based mass tort litigation, and further hamper the permitting process for clean energy."

Provisions such as the border tax in Waxman-Markey (which would impose a tariff on products coming from non-carbon-capping countries) are deal breakers for the group. Donohue warns that a "trade war" would ensue if a border tax becomes law. The chamber has also taken issue with the lack of provisions in the two bills to address the intellectual property rights of American energy products. Developing countries have said they want to use the technology created by industrialized countries to combat climate change. "The problem with that is, Americans are coming up with these solutions," said Matt Letourneau, spokesman for the chamber's energy arm, the Institute for 21st Century Energy. "They don't want to just give them away." The chamber has officially opposed Waxman-Markey but has not taken a position on Kerry-Boxer yet.

As alluded to in Josten's letter, the chamber is also leading the charge against the EPA regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The group has taken heat for calling on the agency to hold a hearing to publicly defend its finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.

How Much They've Spent
The chamber has easily outspent any other industry group that has a hand in energy, spending $52 million on lobbying so far this year, according to the latest lobbying disclosure forms. While lobbying forms don't break down spending by issue, Letourneau said that the very creation of the Institute for 21st Century Energy in 2007 shows that energy is "at the very top of the priority list for the chamber."

For the 2010 election cycle, the chamber has reported making $57,000 in contributions to political action committees and federal candidates, including Majority Committee PAC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, New Democrat Coalition PAC and Blue Dog PAC, according to Federal Election Commission records. Eighty-nine percent of chamber donations to individual federal candidates this cycle has gone to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Institute for 21st Century Energy has been indirectly lobbying Congress as well, Letourneau said. Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the Institute, travels around the country to address local chambers, and her group has sent out e-mails on energy issues. Letourneau would not comment on how much money the Institute spends on its outreach efforts, though.

Key Players
Harbert (pictured) and Josten have been out in full force defending the chamber from recent high-profile defections and promoting the group's position on energy. Both were on hand at a press conference Donohue held in October in response to the defections. Josten and Donohue are listed as registered lobbyists, among dozens of others at the chamber, according to the Center For Responsive Politics. But none of the Institute's dozen employees are registered lobbyists, according to the Center For Responsive Politics.

Josten helped form the business coalition Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth in 2001. Harbert's background in energy goes deep: Prior to joining the chamber, she worked at the Energy Department as a top adviser and held positions at the International Energy Agency. In addition to addressing local chambers, Harbert also testified before House and Senate committees on energy earlier this year.

Links
• Letter Josten wrote to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee commending the bipartisan framework laid out by Kerry and Graham.
• Transition Plan For Securing America's Energy Future: The chamber's 88 recommendations sent to the administration after the presidential election.
• Letter sent to Congress in June opposing Waxman-Markey.
• Letter sent to Congress in May outlining the chamber's position on climate change.
• Web page: "Five Positions on Energy and the Environment."
• Speeches and testimony related to energy.

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