Apple latest to quit US Chamber of Commerce in climate row

The row over the US Chamber of Commerce's opposition to proposed carbon legislation shows no signs of abating, after Apple yesterday became the first consumer brand to quit the trade group over its climate-sceptic stance.

In a letter to the Chamber's president, Thomas J Donohue, Apple vice president Catherine Novelli offered a damning assessment of the Chamber's efforts to block proposed US climate legislation.

"Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us in this effort," she wrote, adding that as a result, the company had "decided to resign our membership effective immediately ".

Apple joins US energy firms Pacific Gas and Electric, PNM Resources, and Exelon, all of which have announced that they will not be renewing their membership of the group as a result of its stance on climate legislation.

In addition, Nike announced last week that it was quitting its post on the board of the Chamber in protest at its position, but would remain a member so that it could continue to lobby for a change in policy at the group.

The mini exodus of firms was sparked last month when the Chamber's vice president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs, William Kovaks, called for a series of public hearings on the science the Environmental Protection Agency used to justify its recent decision that carbon dioxide represents a health risk and can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

Likening the proposed hearings to the infamous 1920s Scopes Trial on evolution, Kovacs said that the hearings would represent the "science of climate change on trial".

The comments provoked uproar from environmental groups which immediately ca lled on those businesses lobbying for the proposed US climate change bill to quit the group in protest.

The Chamber has subsequently softened its stance considerably, arguing that the Scopes Trial analogy was inaccurate and insisting that it is in favour of " strong federal legislation" to protect the climate.

However, Donohue insisted in a statement last week that the group's opposition to the Waxman-Markey bill passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year was justified on the grounds that it will damage US competitiveness and fails to offer sufficient incentives for clean technologies.