The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is trying to “speak out of both sides of their mouth,” to hold onto the powerful fossil fuel interests that make up its core membership while stemming the loss of other corporate members over its aggressive denial of climate change. (Which ALEC denies.)
That’s the charge from Research Director Nick Surgey at the U.S. Center for Media and Democracy, commenting on ALEC’s attempts to claim a more balanced view on climate.
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“The departure of Google last fall over ALEC’s position on global warming prompted the group to publicly refute allegations that it denies climate change,” InsideClimate writes. “This month ALEC sent cease-and-desist letters to two progressive advocacy organizations demanding they retract statements that ALEC denies global warming.”
But in December, Banerjee notes, “an ALEC summit brought together state legislators to develop a model bill for their home states that would dismantle federal environmental and carbon policy, and featured a speaker who said, ‘Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. It is a benefit. It is the very elixir of life.’”
