The following blog written by Jamie Henn, 350.org’s Communications Director, has been cross-posted from It’s Getting Hot in Here:
In news that will surprise just about no one, US Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donahue hosted a press conference today where he offered full-throated support for the Keystone XL pipeline, that 1,700 mile Big Oil scam that would take tar sands oil from Canada down to the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Over the last few weeks, Keystone XL has become a major political fight as Congress and Big Oil (now there are two popular institutions) have tried to slam the project down the American people’s throats, despite the fact that President Obama already delayed the project for at least a year over environmental and safety concerns.
In his speech this morning, Donahue said:
“There is no legitimate reason, none at all, to subject it to further delay,” Donohue said in his annual address on the state of business and the economy. “Real leaders understand that Americans can have big differences in philosophy but still find common ground. They wouldn’t tell us that solutions have to wait until after the election.”
No, Tom, real leaders stand up to Big Oil and protect the American people from scams like Keystone XL, a fuse to the “largest carbon bomb in North America,” the Canadian tar sands. But it’s no surprise, I guess, that the US Chamber of Commerce isn’t concerned about the climate or the interests of everyday Americans. As Bill McKibben wrote this morning,
“The US Chamber of Commerce, two years ago, filed a legal brief arguing that if the planet warmed humans could alter their physiology’ to cope with the heat. So I guess there’s no reason for them to worry about the climate impacts of opening up the second-biggest pool of carbon on the planet. For those of us who plan to keep our current anatomy, however, their assault on basic environmental review is one more sign they’re nothing but a front for the fossil fuel lobby.”
It’s no real surprise that the Chamber of Commerce is pushing Keystone XL, but it does help clarify what we’ve been saying all along: this pipeline is a scam and the only reason politicians are pushing it is because they’re on the payroll of Big Oil and front groups like the US Chamber.
Politico recently reported that Google is seriously considering quitting the U.S. Chamber, and we’ve partnered with SumOfUs—a new project working to give consumers a voice in corporate decisions—to help nudge them over the edge. They’ve created a platform that will enable individuals to vote on why they think Google should quit—check it out here, cast your vote(s), and SumOfUs will make sure that your responses are heard loud and clear.
Google’s unofficial motto is “Don’t be Evil”, and they work hard to live up to that standard. However, being a dues paying member of the U.S. Chamber—a corporate lobbying institution that is fighting to censor the internet and delegitimize the climate crisis, among dozens of other offenses—poses a major contradiction to their socially progressive corporate image.
Please cast your votes and help us convince Google to join the ranks of many other major companies that have already recognized that being associated with the U.S. Chamber is toxic—winning this fight will be another serious blow to its national credibility and lobbying power in Washington DC.
Against seemingly insurmountable odds, a nationwide movement of civil disobedience—comprised of everyone from Nebraskan landowners to Nobel Laureates and renowned climate scientists—has succeeded in the fight to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. For now.
Earlier today, President Obama sent Keystone XL back to the State Department for a through and independent re-review, specifically highlighting concerns over the proposed route of the pipeline and its impacts on the climate. Most energy analysts have indicated that a delay like this would effectively kill the project, but nevertheless, opponents of the pipeline have vowed to renew the fight if the State Department proposes a new route in the coming 16-18 months.
Over the past few months, we’ve followed the U.S. Chamber’s Keystone XL lobbying closely, and have been astounded at the outright lying and fear-mongering that it has stooped to in order to gain national support for a project that would benefit only a handful of the country’s wealthiest oil industry executives at the expense of the American people. It went on a whirlwind publicity and media push, publishing Op-Eds riddled with falsehoods and making numerous public appearances, created fake grassroots citizens groups in the Midwest to make robo-calls to residents, and lobbied extensively to rush the construction of the pipeline, despite an outcry of concerns regarding public health and environmental safety.
And yet, even in the face of a behemoth corporate lobbying organization like the U.S. Chamber—whose political and spending power knows no bounds—the people triumphed. This truly was an unlikely win, and we want to thank the supporters of “The U.S. Chamber Doesn’t Speak for Me” campaign for not being afraid to stand up to the power of the U.S. Chamber in this fight and many others. Thank you.
In an additional hit to the U.S. Chamber’s already failing credibility, another local chamber of commerce has quit the national organization. Check out this update from our friends at U.S. Chamber Watch to read more:
Last week, another local Chamber of Commerce member announced that they had canceled their membership to the U.S. Chamber, citing the national business lobby’s intense partisanship, opposition to health care reform and draconian views on climate change. Since 2009, nearly sixty local Chambers of Commerce have either withdrawn or denounced the U.S. Chamber. In fact, just this past fall the Asheville (NC), Newton-Needham (MA), and Homer (AK) Chambers of Commerce withdrew from the U.S. Chamber, all disavowing the national organizations extreme positions.
In a statement, the Taos County Chamber of Commerce’s (TCCC) CEO explicitly denounced the U.S. Chamber’s extreme positions:
Myth: The policies and views of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are shared by the TCCC.
Fact: Nothing could be further from the truth. The TCCC bases its policies and views on input from our Taos business community, not on what might score points in the political arena. Our job is to advocate for the best interests of our members and the business community at large. A national organization has no way of being in tune with what is important to Taosenos. Because many of the views of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are opposed to the views of our membership and the business community we decided it would be in our best interests to sever our relationship with the national organization.
All of this is not to say that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce does not have some very good programs and policies. The USCC has been fighting for the interests of the national business community for many years. They have educational programs such as the Institute for Organization Management, of which I’m a graduate, which are great opportunities to learn from some of the best industry professionals in the country. The organization also has great training for working with government officials and promoting a business agenda. At some point they may back off their stands on environmental issues and health care, plus their political endorsements. When that happens we may entertain joining again. Until that time we will continue to listen to our business community and fight for what will benefit their interests.
And it’s not just local Chambers of Commerce that reject the U.S. Chamber’s extreme partisanship and radical positions. Last month, Yahoo! joined a growing chorus of major corporations that have either withdrawn or denounced the U.S. Chamber. In a bombshell report last week, Politico revealed that Google and the Consumer Electronics Association are “frustrated” with the U.S. Chamber and are considering canceling their memberships.
It’s becoming increasingly clear to businesses and local Chambers of Commerce that the U.S. Chamber’s radically partisan agenda is against their interests.
An independent newspaper out of Asheville, North Carolina reported earlier today that the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce has quietly decided not to renew its membership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as of October 2011.
The announcement is tucked away at the bottom of the Asheville Chamber’s FAQ section:
The Asheville Chamber is a non-partisan organization focused on job creation. We find the discussion of membership in the US Chamber to be a distraction from that goal. Therefore, it was the staff’s recommendation that we not renew our membership with the US Chamber as of October 2011. This is not a political statement but one of expediency to remain focused on the attraction and creation of jobs.
The number of local chambers quitting or not renewing their memberships continues to gain momentum nationwide over a wide range of controversial U.S. Chamber policies—from it’s stance on climate change to financial reform to general partisan electioneering and politicking—and regardless of a local chamber’s reason for quitting the national organization, the effect is the same: exposure of the U.S. Chamber as a partisan and corporate front group, not the voice of American businesses that it purports to be.
If you’ve ever wondered how the wealthiest 1% in this country manage to maintain a stranglehold on Congress while wreaking havoc on the financial and environmental structures that were created to protect the American people, the answer shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pretends that it has nothing to hide (after all, it does state very clearly on its website that it’s the biggest lobbying group in America, and its headquarters are conspicuously located right across the street from the White House), but if that’s the case, why won’t it disclose who its corporate members are or where its money comes from?
Because it represents the top 1% in America—the corporate and industry executives responsible for our current economic and environmental crises—and because its legitimacy depends on the public not understanding this fact.
In an appalling display of disregard for American public, the Chamber has been on a century-long rampage against government regulation and transparency. It claims to lobby for best interests of small businesses, often scaring the public with the usual rhetoric of “regulation kills jobs”, yet the only people who stand to gain from the Chamber’s policies are the handful of wealthy and corrupt executives who have been making millions in profits at the expense of everyone else.
Even as the new House Supercommittee works to draft a plan that will fix the American economy and put people back to work, it is more than likely that the U.S. Chamber will oppose one of the easiest and most widely approved solutions on the table: ending Big Oil Subsidies. Back in May, ThinkProgress reported that “the chamber’s chief lobbyist, R. Bruce Josten, blasted S. 940, the Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act, as ‘punitive taxation‘ that would ‘jeopardize U.S. jobs’ and ‘increase energy costs’” in a letter to the U.S. Senate, even though the American Petroleum Institute’s chief economist has admitted that cutting subsidies for Big Oil would not hurt jobs, but would likely create them. That bill died in its tracks despite overwhelming public support, and this time around we can be sure that when the opportunity arises to put the American people before profits, the U.S. Chamber will once again side with the 1%.
Over that past four weeks, a movement has surfaced—beginning with the #OccupyWallStreet protest and now spreading to hundreds of cities across the country—of everyday people coming together to show that they’re tired of the way the wealthiest 1% do business in this country. These non-violent occupations aren’t just a fluke, or a passing fad. They’re a response to the corporate greed that led to our economic crisis, and to the kinds of rapacious anti-government policies that the U.S. Chamber continues to champion.
The “We are the 99%” slogan is spreading—from the mouths of small business owners, students, and even World War II veterans—to headlines nationwide.
In the midst of the Occupy protests, the U.S. Chamber has been working tirelessly to try and convince that nation that it’s lobbying for what’s in the best interest of the economy, yet public scrutiny continues to mount among small business owners, corporations and local chambers of commerce over a variety of concerns.
Politico’s Morning Tech reported yesterday that Yahoo has decided not to renew it’s membership with the U.S. Chamber over it’s stance on the PROTECT IP Act, adding to the growing list of major corporations that have quit the national organization based on it’s controversial political lobbying.
The number of local chambers that are defecting from the U.S. Chamber continues to grow. In September, the Homer Chamber of Commerce in Alaska announced that it would not be renewing it’s membership because of the U.S. Chamber’s stance on climate change, and the Boulder Chamber of Commerce has signed onto “The U.S. Chamber Doesn’t Speak for Me” campaign. This brings the count of local chambers that have publicly distanced themselves from the U.S. Chamber up to 55!
The U.S. Chamber has recently won two awards that are well deserved. The Center for Biological Diversity just announced that the Chamber is the winner of their Rubber Dodo Award, awarded annually to those who have done the most to push endangered species toward extinction. CBD’s members voted and agreed that when it comes to climate change—one of the biggest threats to endangered and non-endangered species everywhere—no one has done more to get in the way of carbon regulation than the U.S. Chamber. Additionally, the Chamber won the Wall Street Journal’s Corruption Story of the Year award for it’s concerted efforts to weaken the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act.
In a recent Op-Ed by U.S. Chamber President Tom Donohue, he makes several lofty claims about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that are riddled with exaggerations and falsehoods. With bedfellows like Shell, Valero, ConocoPhillips and Koch Industries set to rake in major profits from the exploitation of Alberta tar sands oil (the second biggest carbon pool on the planet, next to Saudi Arabia), the U.S. Chamber and the American Petroleum Institute (the oil industry’s umbrella lobbying organization) have resorted to flat-out lying and fear-mongering in the interest of drumming up national support for a project that would alter ecosystems, economies, communities and the climate beyond remediation.
Here’s to shedding a little light and transparency on the purported “benefits” of the Keystone XL pipeline:
Myth: According to Donohue and TransCanada (the company overseeing the KXL project), construction of the pipeline would create 20,000 manufacturing and construction jobs, and 119,000 jobs total (indirect and direct).
Fact:Cornell University just released a study finding that the pipeline would create no more than 2,500-4,650 temporary direct construction jobs for two years and that “the industry’s claim that KXL will create 119,000 total jobs is based on a flawed and poorly documented study commissioned by TransCanada (The Perryman Group study).”
At the Global Business Forum in Canada on Saturday, September 24, U.S. Chamber President Tom Donohue told the crowd that he had taken a tour of the “extraordinary” Alberta tar sands oil fields, and that the U.S. had “no choice” but to approve the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry the highly corrosive and especially dangerous oil from Canada through six Midwestern states to the Gulf of Mexico if the State Department approves the project later this year.
Even as Donohue was touting the supposed merits of a pipeline that would be devastating to sensitive ecosystems, drinking water supplies, indigenous peoples and the climate, hundreds of thousands of people around the world came together for Moving Planet on Saturday in a global demonstration of the need to move beyond fossil fuels. At 2,000 simultaneous events in more than 170 countries, people took to the streets en masse—on bike, on foot, and more—to demand that their governments start leading the planet in a new, fossil fuel-free direction.
Moving Planet was not the first—nor the last—historic day of action to protect communities and economies from runaway climate change. Only a few weeks ago, more than 1,200 peaceful protesters were arrested in front of the White House in the largest act of environmental civil disobedience in history, in order to bring national attention to the dangers of the Keystone XL pipeline. Today, hundreds of protesters have gathered at a similar demonstration in front of Parliament Hill in Ottowa, to demand that the Harper government cease any support of the Keystone XL pipeline.
The timing of Donohue’s speech to the Global Business Forum was very telling—there will always be a small percentage of wealthy corporate elite fighting to protect the status quo and a “Business as Usual” approach to energy development, because their profit margins depend on the system remaining unchanged. But one small speech to one small group of individuals can’t compare to the power of citizens uniting all over the world to demand a change in the way our global economy is powered. The small business community and the world at-large have proven that they are ready to move beyond fossil fuels, and the first step toward winning that fight will be the defeat of the Keystone XL project.
It was announced yesterday that the Homer Chamber of Commerce in Alaska will be dropping its membership with the U.S. Chamber, citing that the national organization’s right-leaning politicking isn’t in line with what local businesses want.
The decision by the Homer Chamber of Commerce is good news for Carri Thurman, co-owner of Two Sisters Bakery in the fishing community of 5,000. A former member, Thurman left the local group out of frustration over its affiliation with the U.S. Chamber, particularly the national organization’s “politicizing” against climate change legislation. Now she’s ready to rejoin her peers.
“I plan on taking them a bouquet of flowers and congratulating them on their choices,” she said.
Monte Davis, Executive Director of the Homer Chamber of Commerce, visited a number of businesses in his community and found that many of the owners felt similarly about the local chamber’s affiliation with the national organization; ultimately, the Board of Directors decided to cancel their membership. “It doesn’t behoove us to be a member of that organization anymore. They certainly do not represent the interests of small towns, small businesses and individuals.”
Although the U.S. Chamber claims to represent 3 million small businesses nationwide, its lobbying and electioneering rarely reflect the needs of the small business community. The Chamber lobbies heavily during elections (it spent as much as $33 million trying to influence midterm 2010 elections, and has announced that it will beat that in 2012), is the biggest blockade to passing effective climate change legislation, and is determined to eradicate federal environmental protections and the EPA, highlighting a partisan right-wing agenda that doesn’t sit well with thousands of business owners across the country.
Dozens of local chambers nationwide are taking note of the disconnect between the Big Business lobbying of the U.S. Chamber and the needs of the small businesses community, and are publicly distancing themselves from the national organization. Click here to read some of their statements about why they decided to quit (and don’t forget to click on the “Local Chambers” tab).
Join us in standing with small business owners, local chambers of commerce and people all over the country to declare, “The U.S. Chamber Doesn't Speak for Me.”
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Step 2. Get Local
To show that The U.S Chamber is just a corporate front group, we’re hitting the streets. Join us:
Sign up ten businesses in your community, and we'll send you a copy of "Moral Ground"--a fantastic collection about the moral dimensions of the climate crisis.
Just log your declarations at chamber.350.org/declaration and send us an email at challenge@350.org to let us know, and we'll put the book in the mail!
