September 22, 2009

Contact:
Virginia Cramer, 804-225-9113 x 102

Sierra Club Applauds PG&E Leaving the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Company Cited Chamber’s Climate Regulation Meddling As Reason

The Sierra Club applauded Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) decision today to leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce due to the chamber’s extreme views on global warming.

This announcement comes on the heels of the Sierra Club’s petition to the Chamber, which garnered 31,000 signers asking the member businesses to tell the Chamber to reflect their majority viewpoint that the science on global warming is settled and action must be taken.

Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director

Today PG&E demonstrated that major corporations do not have to sit idly by while a supposed force for business stands in the way of progress on climate change. We are happy to see a company step up to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s extremism.

Last month a Chamber of Commerce official went so far as to call for a public trial on the science of global warming, calling it a “second Scopes Monkey Trial.”

The science is settled on global warming: it’s happening, it’s caused by humans, and we must take action. PG&E isn’t alone in supporting that statement, either. Earlier this year, a group of big companies like Nike and Johnson and Johnson sent a letter to the Chamber asking them to more accurately reflect the majority of American businesses who are well aware that the science of global warming is settled, and who want to move the U.S. into a cleaner energy future.

We may not see eye to eye with them on everything, but we applaud PG&E for realizing the impact they can have and taking a stand on this issue. Like those companies that recently left the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, PG&E is showing that it will not stand for special interest efforts to kill clean energy jobs. We hope to see more corporations standing up for the public interest and strong action on global warming. 

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