The True Driver of Climate Change Denialism

Here’s another quick post on the tenuous position in which our democracy here in the U.S. finds itself: an article that explains the corruptive action of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) upon the law-making process, specifically on laws that pertain to environmental regulation and climate change. I hope you’ll take a few minutes and learn how the fossil fuel industry is earnestly funding groups that promote denialism, and see that their actions are astonishingly effective.

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI — pictured), took to the Senate floor to call upon America to “wake up (to the fact that) ALEC is an organization which works to undercut climate science and undermine climate progress at the state level, interfering in our state legislatures. ALEC has tried to roll back state renewable fuel standards and has handed out model state legislation to obstruct and tie up the President’s Clean Power Plan.”

The article continues:

“Major companies like Google, eBay, Facebook, Yahoo and believe or not even Occidental Petroleum, have disassociated themselves from ALEC because of its destructive position on climate. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said of ALEC, quote ‘they are literally lying’ end quote. They are literally lying about climate change but they keep getting funding from Chevron, BP, Shell and ExxonMobil,” he continued.

Sponsorship opportunities at ALEC conferences, held three times annually, are offered at several different levels. Its “President” level during its annual meeting comes with a $100,000 price tag, which Chevron, BP and Shell have all paid for in the past and its “Chairman” level at $50,000, which ExxonMobil has forked over.

The only good thing to say about all this is that it is gradually coming into the light of day.