How is Industry and Corporate America Attempting to Influence Environmental Protection
and
Conservation?
When people make considered decisions about what they believe, they do like to have all of the information they can get their hands on. They also want to know from whom the information came, and what dog they might have had in the fight. It has come to my attention that many efforts at amending environmental, conservation, and fish and game management rules have been made in a spurious manner. I will be more specific momentarily, but first let me lay some groundwork.
Obviously, corporate interests are motivated to resist legislative and regulatory changes that will compromise their bottom line. In fact, they are even interested in affecting changes that will eliminate regulatory and legislative impediments already in place. That is no big surprise.
We expect the oil and gas industry, the coal industry, the nuclear power industry to name a few to lobby in Washington D.C. We even understand that these companies and their trade groups find ways to fund trips, dinners, and more. But, they and their partners in crime have a found an even more efficient way to work together.
There is a membership organization where legislators (in fact nearly 100% Republican) and "private sector"groups draft model legislation that eventually usually finds its way to being introduced in state legislatures (nearly all efforts are at the state level). The "private sector" groups are corporations, industry trade groups, and conservative think tanks.
The structure of their operations is that most of their work is done in committees. Each committee has 2 co-chairs. One is a legislator and the other is a public sector representative as described above. The private sector representative of the committee that wrote the model legislation I am about to describe, was a representative from a gas industry trade group.
The organization I am describing is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). They have legislative members from most if not all states - this includes Missouri. In subsequent posts, I will expose who some of these folks are, and I will also expose those who are not members but sponsor their legislation.
In fact, much of their model legislation is adopted verbatim in states around the country. The model legislation I am discussing today is called (by them) "State Withdrawal from Regional Climate Initiatives."
To quote:
"WHEREAS, there has been no credible economic analysis of the costs associated
with carbon reduction mandates and the consequential effect of the increasing
costs of doing business in the State of ______;
WHEREAS, forcing business, industry, and food producers to reduce carbon
emissions through government mandates and cap-and-trade policies under
consideration for the regional climate initiative will increase the cost of doing
business, push companies to do business with other states or nations, and increase
consumer costs for electricity, fuel, and food;
WHEREAS, the Congressional Budget Office warns that the cost of cap-and-trade
policies will be borne by consumers and will place a disproportionately high burden
on poorer families;
WHEREAS, simply reducing carbon emissions in the State of ______ will not have a
significant impact on international carbon reduction, especially while countries like
China, Russia, Mexico, and India emit an ever-increasing amount of carbon into the
atmosphere;
WHEREAS, a tremendous amount of economic growth would be sacrificed for a
reduction in carbon emissions that would have no appreciable impact on global
concentrations of CO2;
WHEREAS, no state or nation has enhanced economic opportunities for its citizens
or increased Gross Domestic Product through cap and trade or other carbon
reduction policies;
and WHEREAS, Europe’s cap and trade system has been undermined by political
favoritism, accounting tricks and has failed to achieve the carbon reduction
targets,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the legislature of the State of ______ urges
the Governor to withdraw [state] from the regional climate initiative."
Ironically, this was approved in St. Louis on April 23, 2010 by committee and approved by the ALEC Bord of Directors in early May of 2010. Corporate members of ALEC, past and present include:
- Peabody Energy
- ExxonMobil
- Koch Industries (Same one as are affiliated with Tea Party)
- BP America
- AmerenUE
- and hundreds more including many oil, coal, and gas interests.
Call your legislator and demand they disavow the ALEC organization and all for which they stand.
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