I of course am interested in the fact that the Chamber pays it’s President $3 million bucks a year, but thinks that someone who is paralyzed by a defective product doesn’t deserve more than $250,000.
Apple Computer’s announcement Monday that it was quitting the US Chamber of Commerce was just the latest high profile defection from the country's most powerful business lobby—and one of the most prominent opponents of climate change legislation. In the preceding two weeks, three major electric utilities and Nike also said they'd be leaving the Chamber’s board of directors or dropping out altogether to protest its antiregulation stand. But yesterday Nike made it clear that its parting of ways with the Chamber went beyond a simple policy disagreement, describing a lack of transparency and accountability that conflicted with the organization's own supposedly democratic principles and suggested the outsized influence of a few Chamber members in setting its climate stance.
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The opaque nature of the Chamber's inner workings is also reflected in Chamber president Bill Donohue's role as a booster for business in general and for a few businesses in particular. In addition to raking in more than $3 million from the Chamber in 2007—six times what his predecessor earned—he makes a lucrative income as a member of several major companies' boards of directors. He is on the board of the Union Pacific Railroad, which has given the Chamber $700,000 since 2004. It is also a staunch opponent of Waxman-Markey; it operates diesel locomotives and earns a significant portion of its revenue hauling coal. (On average, major railroads earn 20 percent of their revenue from moving coal.) Since 1998, Donohue has earned roughly $5 million in payments and $3.8 million in stock from the railroad. In return, he is expected to abide by a Union Pacific conflict of interest policy that prevents him from engaging in "any conduct or activities that are inconsistent with the company's best interests." The Chamber has no similar policy.
"What makes this uncommon is in this case the individual is the head of the nation's business federation," notes Natural Resources Defense Council climate campaigner Pete Altman, who first drew attention to Donohue's Union Pacific connection. "They want people to believe that they represent the broad consensus views of their federation, but he is obligated to watch out for Union Pacific, and I just don't see how you reconcile those roles."
