PG&E Corp Quits US Chamber Of Commerce Over Climate Views

PG&E Corp. (PCG) said Tuesday it is leaving the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over objections to what its top executive called the chamber's "extreme position on climate change."

In a letter to the U.S. Chamber published on PG&E's blog, www next100.com, PG&E Chairman and Chief Executive Peter Darbee wrote that company employees "find it dismaying that the Chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored."

The U.S. Chamber has been a vocal critic of climate legislation pending in the Senate, most recently suggesting that the U.S. hold a "Scopes-like" trial to debate evidence that climate change is man-made.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has demurred on the request, saying that its proposed finding that global warming poses a danger to public health is based on sound science.

PG&E said that, in contrast with the U.S. Chamber's stance, the approaches toward climate-change legislation taken by the utility industry group Edison Electric Institute and the broader industry group U.S. Climate Action Partnership, in which PG&E is a member, are "constructive" and "consensus-driven."

-By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6468; [e-mail]