ALEC Denies That We're Causing Global Warming, But They Don't Want Folks To Know That They Deny Global Warming

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been around since the eighties. They draft and support business friendly legislation. As part of their mission, they have received money from oil companies, such as Exxon, to deny the existence of climate change.[1]

            They have been a big part of the global warming denialist industry, but suddenly they don’t want folks to know that they are in the denialist industry. ALEC lawyers have sent letters to Common Cause and the League of Conservation Voters telling them to immediately “cease making false statements” and “remove all false or misleading material” that may suggest that the conservative organization has any doubt about climate change.

            Common Cause and the League of Conservation Voters certainly do call out ALEC for its global warming rhetoric. You can check out instances of where the do so here (League of Conservation Voters) and here (Common Cause).

            And ALEC really does, at least in a gobbledygook sort of way deny that we humans are causing global warming. The following is from ALEC’s Position Statement on Renewables and Climate Change:

Climate change is a historical phenomenon and the debate will continue on the significance of natural and anthropogenic contributions. ALEC will continue to monitor the issue and support the use of sound science to guide policy, but ALEC will also incorporate economic and political realism. Unilateral efforts by the United States or regions within the United States will not significantly decrease carbon emissions globally, and international efforts to decrease emissions have proven politically infeasible and unenforceable. Policymakers in most cases are not willing to inflict economic harm on their citizens with no real benefit. ALEC discourages impractical visionary goals that ignore economic reality, and that will not be met without serious consequences for worldwide standard of living.

OK, nowhere in this statement do they come out and deny that we are making a very warm world with our power plants and automobiles, and I guess that ALEC’s lawyers could stand up in a court and expect to convince a judge or jury that this statement does not deny that climate change is real. But to me it’s obvious that such statements as “the debate will continue on the significance of natural and anthropogenic contributions,” reveal their intention to keep their obfuscation going.

If all of ALEC’s money came from the fossil fuel industry, they could brush aside the organizations that point out their denialism, but other companies, such as Google, Yahoo, and Facebook have left ALEC because of its stance on global warming. Even British Petroleum left ALEC because of its denialist position.

So ALEC wants to have it both ways. They want to serve their supporters who want them to deny that global warming is happening. And they want to bring back Google and Yahoo into their tent as well. So they are left in the very awkward position of denying their denial.

The world keeps getting warmer and my head keeps spinning.

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[1] Lee, J. S. (2003, May 28). Exxon backs groups that question global warming. New York Times

League of Conservation Voters: 112th Congress Most Hostile to the Environment in 40 Years

One of the themes that I revisit through these blog posts is the manner in which clean water, clean air, and living in a sound environment have become politicized. What we Americans have valued in common has been transformed into a liberal-conservative conflict, with the moneyed interests largely supporting GOP candidates and representatives. While they also have Democratic politicians in their pockets—you only have to look at Democrats like West Virginia’s Joe Manchin to see how energy dollars pay for the votes of Democrats—the issue of the environment too often falls along a divide between the Democratic Party and the Grand Old Party.

            This news from the League of Conservation Voters goes to show just how far we have drifted into being a country that has a government that does not serve its citizens. The League judged this last Congress as the one most hostile to the environment in the last 40 years. The environmental organization was particularly scathing in its comments about the GOP controlled House, which systematically blocked advances on climate change legislation.

            Some of the legislation that the report discussed is the stuff that only schoolyard bullies would dream up. H.R. 4078, the Red Tape and Small Business Job Creation Act, sponsored by Arizona representative Tim Griffin would halt all new public safeguards, no matter how much they are needed or how many people they might help, as long as unemployment remains above six percent. Never mind that high levels of unemployment look likely for several years to come or that much of what the GOP has been doing has kept unemployment at high levels for years already. The Stop the War on Coal Act would repeal the scientific finding by the EPA that greenhouse gasses endanger human health and the environment.

            The list goes on, Keystone tar sands oil, cleaning up the Gulf from the BP disaster, general conservation, genetically modified salmon, etc., etc. Besides a list of disasters, I see very little of a democratic process working when I see a report like this. Is public financing of political campaigns a remedy? We need to do something before too long, before our world becomes too warm and our lakes and rivers are once again treated like public dumping grounds and sewers.