logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Tech Companies Cut Ties with ALEC as Action on Climate Change Surges

Rob Meiksins
September 29, 2014
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

ALEC protest

September 22, 2014; National Journal

It is almost looking like a movement! Over the course of three consecutive days last week, four large high-tech companies announced that they had already or were about to sever their ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative nonprofit organization otherwise known as ALEC.

Although not all of them stated so openly, the actions by Google, Yelp, Yahoo, and Facebook appear to be in response to ALEC’s open battle against any legislation that would have a positive impact on climate change. Microsoft had announced its intent to sever ties with ALEC only a few weeks earlier. Google, the first of the latest exodus, made their move following a letter from several liberal-leaning organizations urging the action based on ALEC’s stance on climate control. In particular, the letter referenced a training program ALEC offered to state-level legislators on ways to block any legislation promoting clean energy. In an interview on NPR, Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman, accused ALEC of lying about climate change.

Yelp and Facebook came next. From their various statements, it appears that these two Internet giants had joined ALEC in the first place as a way of helping to promote their views on net neutrality. ALEC has been a strong supporter of the merger between Time Warner and Comcast. Yahoo was the latest defector from the ALEC ranks, making its announcement only one day later.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

As a reminder, ALEC is the highly controversial group that calls itself “the nation’s largest, nonpartisan, individual public-private membership association of state legislators.” One of its stated goals is to fight for sovereign rights of states. The claim of nonpartisanship is a little hard to image given that on its website the first statement in its request for donations is “Don’t let the Left stop ALEC.”

In response to these defections, ALEC sent a letter to Google, signed by more than 100 legislators, trying to clarify its position on climate change. In effect, they argue that ALEC has never denied climate change as a reality. In that letter, they offer a link to model legislation ALEC has drafted which openly acknowledges that human activity may have had had an impact. In one preliminary clause, the legislation reads, “Further, a great deal of scientific uncertainty surrounds the nature of these prospective changes, and the cost of regulation to inhibit such changes may lead to great economic dislocation.” Some would argue that this means that even if humans have caused climate change, the negative impact may not be worth the cost of cleaning it up.

Amid all the furor over the nonprofit status of the NFL (highly covered by NPQ over the past months), there also seems to be a quieter challenge to ALEC’s nonprofit status. As the letter to Google states, it appears that ALEC’s work is very much lobbying on behalf of legislation it considers critical. ALEC is known as the source of several model legislations that emerge from summits it facilitates. In a recent summit, for example, model legislation was drafted that would enable public sector workers to opt out of their union, negotiating their contracts individually.

Given the severe limitations concerning direct promotion of any legislation that are put on organizations with 501(c)(3) status, we begin to wonder where the line in the sand is. Where does lobbying begin and end? Is model legislation worked on with legislators in the room lobbying? Is a training program on how to defeat clean energy legislation lobbying? Perhaps ALEC’s acceptance of a policy of greater transparency in its deliberations would help us understand why the work they do is membership driven, and not lobbying.—Rob Meiksins

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Rob Meiksins

Rob has served in the nonprofit sector for over 30 years in roles ranging from intern to program manager, executive director to board director, and consultant. Starting out in professional theatre in New York City, Rob moved to Milwaukee to work with Milwaukee Rep as the dramaturg. Later, he started to work more and more helping people and organizations in the nonprofit sector articulate, and then take the next step towards their vision. Currently he is working on a new effort to establish an intentional process for nonprofits to identify their capacity-building needs and then learn about and implement the tools that will help. Ideally this is a partnership between nonprofits, consultants, and the philanthropic community to strengthen the sector we all see as critical.

More about: ActivismElectoral and LobbyingEnvironmentNonprofit NewsPolicyTechnology

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
The Nonprofit Sector and Social Change: A Conversation between Cyndi Suarez and Claire Dunning
Claire Dunning and Cyndi Suarez
Nonprofits as Battlegrounds for Democracy
Cyndi Suarez
Countering Authoritarianism: Forging a Progressive Response to Fragmentation
john a. powell and Sara Grossman
Blackprints for Freedom
Cara Page
Eliminating Biphobia Through Breath, Brotherhood, and the Arts
H. “Herukhuti” Sharif Williams
Fair Wages Come to Washington DC
Rithika Ramamurthy

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
The book "Nonprofit Neighborhoods" leaning against a wall
The Nonprofit Sector and Social Change: A Conversation...
Claire Dunning and Cyndi Suarez
Nonprofits as Battlegrounds for Democracy
Cyndi Suarez
A suspension bridge over a body of water, that leads to a cloud-covered town
Countering Authoritarianism: Forging a Progressive Response...
john a. powell and Sara Grossman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.