“The lobbying wing of Big Business has sunk to new lows: spending a record $300,000 a day lobbying to block efforts to address global warming and create clean energy jobs; health care reform and workers’ rights; and attempts to reign in corporate greed on Wall Street,” said Lauren Thorpe, Greenpeace Organizer in San Francisco.
In addition to representatives of major polluters like the American Petroleum Institute, Chevron, and Edison Electric, the energy forum featured the US Chamber’s William Kovacs, who this summer called for the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a new “Scopes monkey trial” on the science of global warming. Kovacs comments and the Chamber’s efforts to block progress on climate change and clean energy have led to the departure of companies like Apple, Exelon, PG&E, and other major companies to quit the group.
Wednesday, outside of the U.S. Chamber’s convention in San Francisco, small business owners and organizations held a press conference and rally calling on U.S. Chamber President Tom Donohue to end his campaign against health care and clean energy reform. The large crowd gathered in front of the Fairmont Hotel and called out Tom Donohue for pushing an agenda that favors corporate CEO profits at the expense of people and the planet. Tom Donohue’s Chamber of Commerce has been met with protests at other recent regional conventions in Chicago and Philadelphia.
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Contact: Joe Smyth, 831-566-5647, [email protected]
