Google Quits ALEC, Says Link With Climate Skeptics Wrong<\/a><\/p>\nGoogle Inc. (GOOG:US) Chairman Eric Schmidt said the world\u2019s biggest Internet search company made a mistake in funding a political group that opposes U.S. action on climate change.<\/p>\n
Schmidt said Google paid the American Legislative Exchange Council as part of a lobbying campaign on an unrelated issue. Without elaborating on Google\u2019s relationship with the group, Schmidt said facts about global warming aren\u2019t in dispute.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people who oppose it are really hurting our children and grandchildren and making the world a much worse place,\u201d Schmidt said on NPR\u2019s \u201cDiane Rehm Show\u201d yesterday. \u201cWe should not be aligned with such people. They are just literally lying.\u201d
\nStory: Google Cuts Ties With Right-Wing Group: \u2018They\u2019re Just Literally Lying\u2019<\/p>\n
Google confirmed in a statement yesterday that it won\u2019t renew its ALEC membership at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
The Mountain View, California-based company and others are under mounting pressure from organizations that back government policies to combat climate change to abandon the Council, which says it supports free-market policies, because of its approach to environmental issues.<\/p>\n
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT:US) has withdrawn from ALEC, saying affiliating with group \u201cwhich is actively fighting policies that promote renewable energy was incongruous,\u201d according to a report in Bloomberg BNA last month.
\nStory: Yelp Takes a Quieter Approach to Breaking Up With ALEC<\/p>\n
ALEC develops model legislation for state legislatures. It was behind Florida\u2019s so-called Stand-Your-Ground law that drew scrutiny after Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer who later was acquitted of murder. It has also pushed to repeal state mandates for renewable energy use.
\n\u2018Public Pressure\u2019<\/p>\n
The group has written model legislation calling for an interstate research council to study possible beneficial effects of climate change and to examine how regulations capping carbon may hurt the economy.
\nVideo: Why Did Google Support ALEC in the First Place?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unfortunate to learn Google has ended its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council as a result of public pressure from left-leaning individuals and organizations who intentionally confuse free market policy perspectives for climate change denial,\u201d Lisa Nelson, ALEC\u2019s chief executive officer, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Bill Meierling, the ALEC senior director of public affairs, said Google joined ALEC in August 2011 and was active in a communications and technology task force the group created to discuss broadband, privacy and e-commerce issues. The company paid ALEC about $10,000 a year.<\/p>\n
Meierling disputed Schmidt\u2019s suggestion that the group denies human activity is a cause of climate change. But he said ALEC has \u201csignificant concerns\u201d rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants would hurt the economy. <\/p>\n
E. Fudd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
for a moment, anyway. Don’t be surprised if it pops back into his %$&)(* within only a few months or less…. Google Quits ALEC, Says Link With Climate Skeptics Wrong Google Inc. (GOOG:US) Chairman Eric Schmidt said the world\u2019s biggest Internet search company made a mistake in funding a political group that opposes U.S. action […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[127,188,28,8],"class_list":["post-860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-deniers","tag-science","tag-values"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenbelief.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenbelief.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenbelief.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenbelief.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenbelief.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenbelief.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":861,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenbelief.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions\/861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenbelief.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenbelief.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenbelief.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}