Change the Chamber Releases New Report Calling Out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
By Change the Chamber Core Team, June 6, 2023
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce continues its legacy of going beyond promoting deregulation and government inaction to advocating for government actions that actively harm marginalized populations including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, low-income, women, and disabled communities.
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Change the Chamber*Lobby for Climate, a coalition of over 100 student groups and other allied organizations from across the country, was joined by InfluenceMap and ClimateVoice in revealing the Chamber’s continued actions to block the passage of meaningful climate policies and protections for marginalized communities. Change the Chamber released a new report to provide an update on the Chamber’s continued obstruction of comprehensive climate action. The new report, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Environmental Justice Obstruction Report, lays out actions by the U.S. Chamber with a focus on the previous year and a specialization on the Chamber’s environmental injustices to complement the information detailed in 2021’s A Summary of Environmental and Climate Action Obstruction by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by Change the Chamber. The new report describes an extensive set of actions executed by the U.S. Chamber and its subsidiaries that oppose policy measures to protect marginalized communities.
InfluenceMap U.S. Program Director, Kendra Haven: “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has consistently and repetitively shown itself to be an opponent of the sorts of climate policy that is urgently required to deliver on the goals of the Paris Agreement, receiving one of the worst grades in InfluenceMap's system for its climate policy advocacy. Just this week the organization came out against critical rules to reduce emissions from the power sector. It is hard to see how this agenda aligns with the stated climate goals of the vast majority of corporate America which makes up its membership.”
ClimateVoice Co-Executive Director, Deborah McNamara: “The U.S. Chamber continues to be the number one obstruction in the path of a just transition to clean energy, as this new report clearly documents. This negative pattern also reflects on the companies that allow the Chamber to speak for them.”
Change the Chamber Environmental Justice Team: “Ultimately, our report highlights the multitude of ways that the Chamber has been hypocritical in their statements about supporting minority communities when their actions expose their true priority — profit over people. The Chamber not only obstructed necessary climate action but also actively lobbied against the communities that are most affected by the climate crisis.”
Contact Change the Chamber at changeuschamber@gmail.com or (707) 326-8157.
Change The Chamber is a bipartisan coalition of over 100 student groups, including undergraduates, graduate students and recent graduates.