Chamber to Critics: ‘Bring ’Em On’

The 800-pound gorilla of Washington lobbying has lost, at most, an ounce or two.

That’s the message the U.S. Chamber of Commerce delivered to a dozen journalists Thursday in response to the high-profile resignations of a handful of members—including Apple—over the organization’s position on climate change.

“I’m not particularly worried about it,” said Tom Donohue, the Chamber’s president and CEO.

The organization has 300,000 members, and companies are constantly joining or quitting the chamber for a variety of reasons. So the departures of four or five companies isn’t a reason for concern. He is upset, however, that a few environmental groups have “willfully, in my opinion” distorted the chamber’s position on global warming in “an orchestrated campaign” to pressure Chamber members.

“We understand the kind of pressures companies can face,” Donohue said. “Part of our job is to take the heat on tough issues while they manage their businesses and their public images.”

The press briefing was the Chamber’s second attempt “to set the record straight” on global warming. After three utilities announced their displeasure with the Chamber’s position more than a week ago, it issued a press release that emphasized that it agrees global warming needs to be addressed. The Chamber supports limits on greenhouse gases—just not the House’s cap-and-trade bill or regulations being considered by the Environmental Protection Agency. Those approaches would wreck the economy, it contends.

That didn’t stop the bleeding. The next day Nike announced it was resigning its seat on the Chamber’s board of directors. This week Apple announced it was quitting the Chamber, saying it “supports regulating greenhouse-gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us in this effort.”

Donohue said Apple’s resignation letter “flatly misstates the Chamber’s position.” Still, he added, “I’m not mad at these companies,” who “sort of woke up one morning and all decided…to go out and quit and put it in the newspaper.”

Most of its members agree with the Chamber’s position, he said.

Donohue was upset at the language his top environmental lobbyist used to explain why the Chamber asked the EPA to hold a public hearing on the scientific evidence it was using to justify regulations capping carbon emissions. The hearing would be “the Scopes Monkey Trial of the 21st century,” the chamber’s William Kovacs told the Los Angeles Times.

That colorful phrase gave fuel to critics who contended the Chamber was challenging the reality of global warming.

“I was madder than hell, but I remembered that I’m an Irishman that occasionally adds a sentence that I shouldn’t at the end,” Donohue said.

Later, Donohue did get his Irish up. The Chamber is being targeted because it’s the largest business organization of its kind in the world and is effective, he said. Its critics probably will ratchet up their pressure on the Chamber.

“Well, bring ’em on,” he said.