Apple-backed lobbying groups accused of fighting climate legislation
Watchdog claims unspecified groups, including some backed by Apple and Microsoft, are opposing President Biden's $3.5 trillion budget bill to combat climate change.
President Biden
Non-partisan group Accountable.US says that the Democrats' bill is the target of corporate lobby groups and other organizations. According to The Guardian, these groups feature prominent US companies including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Disney.
"Major corporations love to tell us how committed they are to addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable future," Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig told the newspaper, "but behind closed doors, they are funding the very industry trade groups that are fighting tooth and nail to stop the biggest climate change bill ever."
Accountable.US has separately reported on Apple profiting from tax breaks instigated by President Trump, and concluded that it is now lobbying to keep them.
Neither The Guardian, nor Accountable.US, have detailed Apple's active part in the lobby groups, nor established what those groups are, if there is a voting structure, or how the decision-making works for the lobbyist groups. Accountable.US has separately linked Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to the US Chamber of Commerce PAC, but chiefly refers only to groups representing "corporate interests."
The Guardian says that one such group is the Business Roundtable. It notes that this organization is made up of company CEOs, including Apple's Tim Cook.
Apple has not commented on the report. It has recently, however, claimed that it hopes its environmental efforts will lead other firms to do the same.
"You need businesses that are proactive, that are continuing to push forward, and really view it as a priority," said Alisha Johnson, lead of Apple's Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, "not just as a PR statement, but in the execution of their work."
Read on AppleInsider
President Biden
Non-partisan group Accountable.US says that the Democrats' bill is the target of corporate lobby groups and other organizations. According to The Guardian, these groups feature prominent US companies including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Disney.
"Major corporations love to tell us how committed they are to addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable future," Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig told the newspaper, "but behind closed doors, they are funding the very industry trade groups that are fighting tooth and nail to stop the biggest climate change bill ever."
Accountable.US has separately reported on Apple profiting from tax breaks instigated by President Trump, and concluded that it is now lobbying to keep them.
Neither The Guardian, nor Accountable.US, have detailed Apple's active part in the lobby groups, nor established what those groups are, if there is a voting structure, or how the decision-making works for the lobbyist groups. Accountable.US has separately linked Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to the US Chamber of Commerce PAC, but chiefly refers only to groups representing "corporate interests."
The Guardian says that one such group is the Business Roundtable. It notes that this organization is made up of company CEOs, including Apple's Tim Cook.
Apple has not commented on the report. It has recently, however, claimed that it hopes its environmental efforts will lead other firms to do the same.
"You need businesses that are proactive, that are continuing to push forward, and really view it as a priority," said Alisha Johnson, lead of Apple's Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, "not just as a PR statement, but in the execution of their work."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
So a "watchdog" group that operates in the shadows, claims unspecified "lobbyist groups" that may or may not be backed by large corporations including Apple are pressuring Congress in some way.
Uh...yeah.
The irony is the name of the "watchdog" is Accountable, when I see little evidence that they in fact are. Who are they? Who is paying their bills? Who do they work for? What is THEIR agenda?
Now I don't doubt that there are some groups trying to lobby Congress on this bill, both to strengthen it and weaken it. That's how this sort of thing works. But this smells more like a hatchet job from a group trying to make a name for themselves. Call me when someone I can trust, or at least that I've heard of, ever, issues a report with some actual evidence to back it up.
No, climate denial is political, climate science is science. Some people just can't handle the facts.
Fossil fuels alter economies tremendously, they've facilitated the growth of the modern age, brought nations out of poverty, saved countless lives by freeing up resources and manpower to study science, medicine, etc.patchythepirate said: "Fossil fuels alter economies tremendously, they've facilitated the growth of the modern age, brought nations out of poverty, saved countless lives by freeing up resources and manpower to study science, medicine, etc."
Do you understand that both your statement and "fossil fuels are pumping heat-trapping gasses into the atmosphere causing global-warming" can both be correct?
“American politics is a freak show.” Someone said to me. The worst of all late-capitalism scenarios. Hyper-capitalist state with two political parties at each other’s throats. Both utterly corrupt, one pot calling the other black. One side awash in disinformation and lies: pushing voter disenfranchisement (disgraceful); preposterous Q-anon kak; science denialism (denying climate science, medical science, biology and palaeontology (evolution), history (bible history, black history) etc. etc.); washed-up libertarianism (debunked economics-for-dummies); laughable exceptionalism. A fabulously-wealthy nation; half-a-million sleep on the street; one third lives paycheck-to-paycheck; terrible health care outcomes; blatant drug price gouging you can’t solve; virtual police state with the highest incarceration rate in the world; not to mention murderous cops. The solution? Cut taxes, make the wealthy wealthier—it’ll work, hand on heart! Conservative voters hate their own party so much that they voted for that dumbass. Is that representative politics?
The upshot of it all is that the rest of us have to suffer your idiotic “up-is-down,” “black-is-white,” “the-sun-rises-in-the-west” nonsense on internet forums like this one.