Climate Lobbying Overview: The US Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) appears actively opposed to climate policy in the US. While the Chamber updated its climate position statement to a nominally more positive stance in 2021, it advocated in opposition to early policy measures advanced by the Biden administration shortly thereafter. The Chamber’s positive communications in 2021 follow years of strategic opposition to most strands of climate policy and, from 2016-2020, active support for the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda.

Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Since 2019, the Chamber has stated support for “durable” climate policy that recognizes both the “costs of action and inaction.” Its 2021 position statement further endorses a market-based approach to emissions reductions but stops short of supporting global emissions reductions in line with IPCC advice. Rather, a statement on its website expresses concern with certain proposed timelines that are “not viewed as feasible.”

The Chamber’s 2019 reversal on the Paris Agreement, in particular, followed years of detailed opposition. In 2017, it sponsored and publicized research criticizing the US’s GHG emission reduction pledge under the Agreement, which was subsequently used by the Trump Administration in 2017 to justify pulling the US out of the deal. In March 2019, the Chamber’s Global Energy Institute submitted detailed criticism of the US’s obligation under the Paris Agreement to US House Representatives, arguing that the GHG emissions target commitments were “completely unrealistic.” A month later, just before the Trump administration’s efforts to finalize this move, the Chamber altered its position, stating instead that it supported US participation in the deal. It is unclear if the Chamber’s position on the US’s pledge to reduce 26-29% of emissions by 2030 (against a 2005 baseline) also changed. With the US having formally rejoined the Paris Agreement, it is unclear how the Chamber will posture toward the new US emissions reduction target required by US participation in the deal.

Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: The Chamber has consistently opposed legislative and regulatory intervention on climate. While it backed several energy efficiency bills in 2019, such as the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act, the Chamber lobbied heavily to weaken and roll back national fuel economy standards for vehicles from 2017 to 2020. In September 2020, it submitted an amicus brief supporting the revocation of California’s right to enact its own, stronger fuel economy standards. In 2021, the Chamber updated its website to offer conditional support for methane standards under the Clean Air Act. This followed active lobbying to repeal methane standards in 2017.

While the Chamber’s engagement with carbon tax and emissions trading proposals in the US appears less frequent in recent years, it opposed the European carbon border tax in 2019 as well as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in 2018, cautioning against similar cap and trade proposals in the US. In February 2021, the Chamber wrote a memo to President Biden with other trade groups requesting participation in the administration’s process to determine the social cost of carbon, a figure used to justify climate regulations. The Chamber’s current stance is unclear, though previously, in 2017, it advocated for the repeal of the use of a ‘social-cost of carbon’ in policy making altogether, calling it "bad regulatory policy.” The Chamber also fought for the repeal of the Clean Power Plan (CPP), leading legal action against it from 2015 to 2019. In 2018, the Chamber supported the CPP’s replacement with the far weaker Affordable Clean Energy rule.

Positioning on Energy Transition: The Chamber shows some support for measures to advance low-emissions technologies, but appears largely opposed to an urgent transition of the energy mix. The Chamber has, in particular, opposed regulation that would limit unabated coal in the energy mix. The organization has opposed fossil fuel phase-out, including publishing a report on the economic cost of the ‘Keep it in the Ground’ movement in December 2018, claiming that it cost the US “$91.9 billion in domestic economic activity and eliminated nearly 730,000 job opportunities.” In 2019, the Chamber wrote a letter to US Senators opposing the proposed Green New Deal.

Rather than restrictions on GHG emitting fuels and practices, the Chamber’s 2019 policy proposals focus on raising government funding to develop technologies that may reduce GHG emissions in the future. The Chamber supported the USE-IT Act in 2020 aimed at developing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, yet in February 2019, supported the repeal of a rule under the EPA’s New Source Performance Standards that would have tied the construction of new coal plants to the use of CCS. At the same time, it has continued to push for policy measures that will increase US fossil fuel production, including measures to aid increased offshore, Arctic, and non-conventional oil and gas production. For example, in February 2019, the organization took legal action to support the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. In January 2021, it strongly opposed Biden’s executive orders to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and pause oil and gas leases on federal lands.