Chamber of Commerce: Nixon to China Moment or 'Scopes Monkey Trial'?

During the recent GOP boycott of climate bill talks in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent committee members a letter stating its view of acceptable and unacceptable policies for climate change legislation.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) characterized this letter as a potential "Nixon to China moment", a possible breakthrough from the Chamber's hard-line opposition to real climate change legislation. After all, it was only a few months earlier that the Chamber filed a petition for a trial on climate change science, with one executive calling it a modern day "Scopes monkey trial."

The Chamber's line in the sand was stated in the letter:

"The Chamber will continue to oppose bad policies that resemble the failed climate proposals of the past, such as bills that jeopardize American jobs, create trade inequalities, leave open the Clean Air Act, open the door to CO2-based mass tort litigation, and further hamper the permitting process for clean energy."

The group has provided a few clues over the past few months as to what it means by the phrase, "open the door to CO2-based mass tort litigation." Those clues can help decipher whether the Chamber is actually open to climate action or deems the science a frivolous figment.

One clue is that the Chamber views the EPA endangerment finding on greenhouse gases for the Clean Air Act as one of those "bad policies" that might "open the door" to climate change litigation. In a 21-page supplemental statement to support the "Scopes monkey trial," the Chamber also maintained that claims about climate change impacts on public health and welfare, such as higher death rates, were "spurious."

The Chamber's climate change blueprint provides another clue. It says a number of federal laws — such as the Clean Water Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) — should be restricted in order to "Reduce overly burdensome regulations and opportunities for frivolous litigation."

While the Chamber acknowledges citizens and groups have a right to participate in administrative and judicial proceedings regulating the energy industry, it does not appreciate that permit review and appeals process can delay or terminate projects. Thus, the Chamber supports imposing "hard deadlines" on administrative and judicial review of permit decisions.

Another favored reform is to provide a categorical exclusion for some energy projects to exempt from the need to conduct an environmental assessment or impact statement of the project under NEPA. And, the Chamber opposes the use of ESA to list endangered or threatened species, such as the polar bear, as a "backdoor way" to limit energy exploration and impose "climate change policy restrictions."

The Chamber is also concerned about provisions in the House-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES).