Excerpt: Why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Doesn’t speak for me! - Of the 32 million dollars the US chamber spent on the 2010 midterm election, 94% went to climate change deniers. - With a 200 million dollar annual budget, the chamber spends more than the next 5 lobbying groups combined. - In 2009 the chamber received 55% of its money from just 16 donors. - The chamber is set up in such a manner that it is not required to reveal who its donors are. - The US chamber is a corporate front group allowing large corporate interests to shield their donations to a group with a very partisan and regressive agenda. - The US chambers power comes from the claim that it represents three million businesses, but it doesn’t. - The chamber spends tens of millions of dollars each year lobbying congress in an attempt to block all attempts at progress on climate legislation . History of the US Chamber of Commerce · Founded in 1912 as the worlds largest business federation · Headquarters in Washington D.C. directly across from the white house · The Chamber lobbied against involvement in WWII. · It lobbied against the Civil rights act of 1964 · It supported the Joseph McCarthy hearings demanding the hunting down of subversives and communists in the 1950’s · In the 80’s and 90’s it fought to weaken the clean air standards, oppose the hazardous waste dumping ban, and lobbied to oppose the Kyoto greenhouse gas treaty · In 2009 one of the Chamber’s vice presidents for environment, technology and regulatory affairs called for a Scopes Monkey Trial on the science of climate change · Most recently the chamber petitioned the E.P.A. to take no action on climate change on the grounds that Populations can adapt to a warmer climate via a range of behavioral, physiological and technological adaptations. · The chamber supports the construction of the Keystone Pipeline to bring tar sands oil across the U.S. to be refined and shipped around the world from the Texas gulf coast. Edward Hejtmanek [Mr. Hejtmanek is a Fayetteville businessman. –D]
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 16:58:58 +0000
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