Top CEOs urge Biden on climate, but pay lobbyists to resist

by Gabriel Slaughter, March 29, 2021

Screenshot from Youtube: Gerry Anderson, Executive Chairman, DTE Energy; Jamie M. Gentoso, Chief Executive Officer of US Cement Operations, LafargeHolcim; Bob Holycross Vice President, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering, Ford Motor Company.

CEOs urge the Biden administration to take science-based action to mitigate climate change, yet pay lobbyists who do the exact opposite.

On March 9, the CEO Climate Dialogue sent a letter to the White House, announcing their support for an ambitious climate policy to “ensure the country is on a path to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the economy by 2050 with aggressive near and mid-term emission reductions commensurate with this goal.” The letter was short, without specifics, but the message was clear: the US must act to aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet the science-based goal of the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5°C or well below 2°C.

However, signatories Citigroup, Dow Inc, DSM, Dominion Energy, DTE energy, Dupont, Exelon, and Shell are all major donors to what is arguably one of the country’s most powerful obstructors of climate action: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

On March 17, the U.S. Chamber released its own set of principles and priorities aimed at informing the administration’s climate policy. The Chamber makes no mention of the need to limit climate change in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. They want to limit the scope of the administration’s goals, which they want to be, “presented as a range that allows for ambition flexibility.” They also request continued public policy support for coal, which is the most polluting source of energy.

Global climate politics are at stake. The US is currently preparing its new greenhouse gas reduction commitment for the Paris Agreement, the so-called Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), since it rejoined the landmark treaty on February 19. The US is slated to host an international climate summit on April 22. If the Biden administration sets an ambitious target, it will be able to apply pressure to its allies and rivals. This leverage is important because developing economies like Brazil, India, Indonesia, and China are currently on a trajectory to become the world’s major emitters. As the world’s largest economy and financial powerhouse, the US could, and should, show aggressive leadership with public policy to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

The U.S. Chamber’s complacency towards climate change science amounts to denial. The New York Times reported two weeks ago that global warming of more than 1.5°C is projected to render a band roughly 3,000 miles from north to south around the Equator, an area home to more than three billion people, unbearable for humans. In February 2020, analysts from JP Morgan Chase & Co., the private bank with the largest global investments in the fossil fuel industry, concluded that climate change poses an existential threat to our species. These and many more reports show that if we miss the goals of the Paris Agreement, climate change will lead to an unprecedented level of human suffering and environmental disruption.

While the letter from the CEO Climate Dialogue called for sweeping but vague measures, the U.S. Chamber employs over 400 lobbyists, policy writers, lawyers, and communications professionals to influence the crucial details in policymaking. In the last month alone, the Chamber has: 

• Lobbied the Securities Exchange Commission to put brakes on its new Climate and ESG Task Force, which would “develop initiatives to proactively identify ESG-related misconduct,” according to the SEC; 

• Argued in court to support a pipeline company’s attempt to use eminent domain to seize land from the state of New Jersey; and

• Lobbied the Office of the Management of the Budget on the “social cost of carbon,” which is a key tool for internal cost-benefit climate analyses by the federal government.

For those intimate with federal climate politics, the U.S. Chamber is a familiar, if notorious name. They were prominent architects of the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda; they organized the fight against the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, and won; and in 2009, they told the EPA that a 3°C rise in global average temperatures “would, on balance, be beneficial to humans.” Last but not least, they continue to promote the narrative that science-based climate action will damage the economy, when the reality is that without action, there will be no economy. 

The U.S. Chamber staff are not only indifferent to climate change’s huge risks, but also to the health of this country’s democracy. On March 6, they announced that the U.S. Chamber would continue to support Congress members who voted to overturn the 2020 election.

Some of America’s leading corporations, including Goldman Sachs, Nike, and Apple, have publicly dropped the U.S. Chamber over its reckless and destructive lobbying.

Yet Citigroup, Dow Inc, DSM, Dominion Energy, DTE energy, Dupont, Exelon, and Shell continue to fund the Chamber. If money talks, what are these CEOs telling us? If they are serious in their recommendations to the White House, they must quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.