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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Exelon joins other utilities in dropping out of U.S. Chamber

Political commentators keep describing the climate-change legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June as stalled in the U.S. Senate.

Perhaps, but the latest drama is unfolding outside the political arena, in the offices of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is fielding some uncomfortable criticism over its opposition to the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

The U.S. Chamber is used to being tarred by labor and environmental groups. But this time, the revolt is from within. Three large utilities say they will leave the chamber over the issue.

Exelon Corp. became the latest and largest to do so yesterday. Chairman and CEO John W. Rowe, in an address to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, said his Chicago company is so committed to climate legislation that it will let its chamber membership lapse.

“Because of their stridency against carbon legislation, Exelon has decided not to renew its membership in the U.S. Chamber this year,” Rowe said.

It was only one line in a speech largely about energy efficiency. But in shunning the chamber, the parent of Philadelphia-based Peco joins PG&E Corp., of San Francisco, and PNM Resources Inc., of Albuquerque, N.M., which within the space of a week announced their intentions to leave the chamber. With a market value of $33.1 billion, Exelon is much bigger than PG&E and PNM.

No one from the U.S. Chamber, which has about 3 million members, returned a phone call yesterday seeking comment.

PG&E chairman and CEO Peter Darbee was even more forceful in his criticism of the chamber.

“We find it dismaying that the Chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored,” Darbee wrote in a letter to the chamber. Excerpts from that letter are posted on PG&E’s corporate blog.

The U.S. Chamber, as an advocate for business, has been challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to use the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from cars. Though the organization has said Congress should enact legislation to regulate greenhouse gases, the chamber does not support what the House has passed. (The clean-energy bill is often referred to as Waxman-Markey, after its sponsors.)

Saying the “carbon-based free lunch is over,” Rowe sees that opposition as a mistake. “Inaction on climate is not an option. If Congress does not act, the EPA will, and the result will be more arbitrary, more expensive, and more uncertain for investors and the industry than a reasonable, market-based legislative solution,” Rowe said in a statement.

All that would be Washington as usual had a U.S. Chamber vice president named Bill Kovacs not invoked the phrase “Scopes monkey trial” in an August article in the Los Angeles Times to describe the chamber’s effort to put “the science of climate change on trial.”

Kovacs later said his use of that analogy evoking the 1925 trial over the teaching of evolution in Tennessee public schools was “inappropriate” and detracted from the chamber’s message.

Exelon, PG&E and PNM weren’t buying that. All are card-carrying members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which is also supported by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

The group has been calling for federal legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse-gas emissions. Does it hope to influence the legislative process? Absolutely.

By turning their backs to the U.S. Chamber, Exelon and the others are showing they’ve given up trying to influence “the voice of business.”
Posted by Mike Armstrong @ 2:05 AM  Permalink | File Under: Energy, Utilities | 8 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:36 AM, 09/29/2009
    Of course Exelon wants cap & trade - higher rates mean higher profits (look at how much money ExxonMobil made when the oil prices went up despite people buying less gas.) Plus they look to get scads of government money to assist in the transition to a 'smart grid'. Higher rates and government money - what's not to like from Exelon's viewpoint? Oh wait, they're doing it because it's good for the environment? What's stopping them now? They don't want to spend their money on it? Considering their profit margin is four times what the insurance industry is, perhaps President Obama should create a 'public option' here, too?
    — theodotius
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:01 PM, 09/29/2009
    This is a highly principled stance by PA based and PA operating utilities. The US Chamber isn't "the voice of business," it's the voice of coal. It's the voice of the old economy. It excludes the new economy, the new use of nuclear, and renewables. The question is will the government let these old industries take their natural course as the market is wont, or will the government try to GM an industry that must be subject to its true costs? Nuclear is only costly when the costs of carbon-based energy are not calculated, and accounting those costs must be required for the market to choose the safest, cleanest option. Exelon has significant safe nuclear holdings that can be further optimized, but only if government requires that carbon energy be required to tally its true cost.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:04 PM, 09/29/2009
    We must require significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and it is Exelon, PG&E, and PNM who are ready. Where is the Obama administration? I hate to say it, but still greatly influenced by the old coal Dem wing. Listen to how often Obama cites "clean coal" as an option. It's a theory. It's a hypothesis. It's not a working industry like nuclear and renewable energy. Sadly the Dems can't keep up with progressives in the energy industry.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:10 PM, 09/29/2009
    Do your homework. Cap n Trade is a joke! PECO/Excelone use more coal than most other utilities. Stop thinking that you know the answers. You all mostly have uninformed opinions that will end up costing you your liberties.
    — SPENDSPEND
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:55 PM, 09/29/2009
    The article only brushes on the real issue.. if legislation is not passed, the EPA will regulate GHGs under the existing regulations. They're already started the process for this, in an attempt to move the legislation. If GHGs are regulated under CAA90, there will be much stricter regulation.. and certainly no freebies like those contained in the proposed bill. The utilities will not take meaningful action until required by law.
    — Politburo
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:03 PM, 09/29/2009
    Let the Govt. have it's way and we will have a "Public Option" for every event affecting your life. Just no freedom to decide for yourself. What did the dinosaurs do to cause the ice age? Since when did concensus prove a theory?
    — vocal Joe
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:34 AM, 09/30/2009
    Chambers of Commerce need get their blinders off. The whole "Green Revolution" going worldwide- as it must- is America's best if not only hope for an industrial and production explosion, the likes of which only can produce the revenue stream healthy enough to remedy our deficits.
    — kevinshinn


8 comments
About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
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