Industry gets heated over stance taken by lobby groups

As climate change becomes an ever hotter topic in the run-up to the Copenhagen summit in December, some US companies are finding that the environment and business lobbying go together like oil and water.

Several large energy companies - including Pacific Gas and Electricof San Francisco and Exelon, the biggest operator of nuclear power plants in the US - have quit the US Chamber of Commerce over its position on climate change. A slew of others have left the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a trade group for coal and utility companies, for the same reason.

As US companies try to boost their green credentials, some find their views are incompatible with those of lobby groups opposing legislation that would place limits and regulations on business.

"These companies that have pulled out understand that the sooner we address the problem of global warming the more opportunities there will be for growth," said Daniel Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress. "The chamber has signalled it is far outside the mainstream."

Exelon became the latest company to leave the chamber this week, saying it would not renew its membership because it was committed to legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions.

The chamber has been an outspoken critic of the climate change legislation that will go to the Senate environment committee today and has called for the Environmental Protection Agency to hold hearings on whether global warming is man-made.

"Inaction on climate is not an option," John Rowe, Exelon's chief executive, said in a speech in Chicago on Monday. "If Congress does not act the EPA will, and the result will be more arbitrary, more expensive and more uncertain for investors and the industry than a reasonable, market-based legislative solution."

This came on the heels of PG&E's objections to the chamber's "extreme position on climate change".

Company employees "find it dismaying that the chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored", Peter Darbee, PG&E chairman, wrote in a letter to the chamber.

Nike, the sportswear company, has said it is "deeply disappointed" with the chamber's position on climate change, although it remains a member.

But the chamber says its position has been misrepresented and that it does not challenge the science of climate change but rather the suggestion that global warming endangers human health.

"We have consistently called for climate change legislation," said Karen Alderman Harbert, president of the chamber's Institute for 21st Century Energy.

The chamber was in favour of policies that would encourage new technologies and energy efficiency, she said.

Commenting on its decision to quit the ACCCE, North Carolina-based Duke Energy said: "We formed to promote the message that coal is getting cleaner, but the group increasingly appeared to be against climate change legislation."

Alstom Power, part of the French power giant, and Alcoa, the largest US aluminium maker, both left the ACCCE to remove any doubt about their support for climate change legislation.

The ACCCE said its members sometimes had different perspectives on important policy positions. "Our coalition strongly supports policies that seek continuous environmental improvements," an official said.