U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne Clark

New research found that the Chamber of Commerce knew about the dangers posed by the burning of fossil fuels for decades, but deliberately skewed their external messaging to sow doubt and uncertainty about climate science whenever key climate policy proposals were on the table. 

Citing data from U.K.-based think tank InfluenceMap, a recent report from the Senate Committee on the Climate Crisis called the Chamber of Commerce one of “the two most influential opponents of climate action,” along with its founding organization, the National Association of Manufacturers. 

The American people deserve answers, and as the Chamber’s President and CEO, Clark must testify. Here is just some of the evidence that members of the House Oversight Committee should ask her to explain:

The Chamber of Commerce Knew About the Dangers of Climate Change Early On

• According to research from Brown University, the Chamber had knowledge of the link between fossil fuels and climate change since at least the 1980s. 

• Harvey Alter, a resources and policy official at the time, gave an internal speech to the International Chamber of Commerce in 1989 during which he detailed the dire climate consequences of burning fossil fuels with astounding accuracy — including flooding in Bangladesh, drought in California, and the spread of vector-borne disease.

• Despite that knowledge, by 1991, the Chamber was already claiming that, “While possible global warming is cause for concern, genuine scientific disputes remain as to the existence, causes, and potential consequences of global climate change.”

The Chamber Worked Diligently on Behalf of Big Oil Member Corporations to Promote Climate Denial, Downplay Climate Risks and Obstruct Action

• Between the introduction of the Kyoto Protocol and the EPA’s Endangerment Finding in 2009 (which found that the EPA had the authority to regulate CO2 emissions under the Clean Air Act), crucial years for the development of the United States’ stance on climate policy, the Chamber launched concerted messaging campaigns using “sixteen unique discourses of delay” to encourage skepticism about climate science and enforce the idea that climate action would hurt jobs and the economy. 

• The Global Climate Coalition, an industry front group where the Chamber of Commerce was a member and consistently served on its board of directors, led a massive lobbying and PR campaign for over a decade to spread climate denial and disinformation, even while its own scientists reinforced the consensus that burning fossil fuels would indeed cause dangerous global warming.

• In 2009, several member companies, including utility companies Exelon, PG&E, and New Mexico utility PNM, publicly exited the Chamber in response to its extreme climate denial.

• In the same year, while the Chamber claimed to support “common sense” climate legislation, the Chamber submitted a petition to the EPA challenging its Endangerment Finding and again refuting the science behind climate change and even suggesting it might be beneficial. 

• During this year’s Chamber of Commerce Energy Summit in East Texas, Senator John Cornyn told an enthusiastic audience that those concerned about climate change and demanding action were part of a “cult” and that climate change “isn’t science, it’s religion.”

The Chamber is the Most Powerful Lobbying Force on Capitol Hill -- and Uses That Power to Oppose Climate Action.

• Representatives from fossil fuel companies and utilities like Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Phillips 66, Entergy, and other major corporations sit on the Chamber’s board of directors. 

• In 2019, the Chamber began to claim that climate “inaction is simply not an option” and purported to support businesses’ so-called climate leadership. But a report by Change the Chamber, a nationwide coalition working to hold the Chamber accountable, details the Chamber’s recent lobbying efforts to oppose and weaken U.S. climate policy, including public health protections, at the expense of the American public. 

• As referenced in that study, the Chamber successfully lobbied to alter the EPA’s National Environmental Protection Act to ensure that the agency would no longer measure how new fossil fuel infrastructure might contribute to climate change. The Chamber also successfully lobbied the Senate to vote down three moratoriums on oil offshore drilling, and to vote down a joint resolution to nullify the EPA’s repeal of the Clean Power Plan.

• The Chamber has spent nearly $150 million on Congressional candidates opposed to climate action since Citizens United, according to a 2020 Senate report.

• In 2017, the Chamber funded a misleading economic study about the costs of joining the Paris Agreement that was widely cited by President Trump as reason for the U.S. to withdraw.

• The Chamber is now threatening to pull its support from lawmakers who back President Biden’s $3.5 trillion infrastructure package, which includes crucial climate legislation, and has vowed to “do everything we can to prevent this tax raising, job killing reconciliation bill from becoming law.”