Fossil Fuel Industries are promoting climate change denial via an organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council known as ALEC, that feeds corporate agenda to state legislators for enactment, reports Inside Climate News. ALEC is funded by its corporations, including fossil fuel industries such as Chevron and Exxon-Mobil, and legislators, mostly Republicans, representing voters in all 50 states. Within ALEC, legislative templates are created and fed to legislators, resulting in virtually identical legislative bills being promoted and sometimes enacted by many state governments. Previously, ALEC attempted to legislatively withdraw states from regional associations to cut carbon emissions, as documented by the Center for Media and Democracy, which is not funded by any corporations or governments. Now, ALEC is behind a push in statehouses across the United States to mandate the teaching of skepticism as a “theoretical alternative” to human-caused climate change, despite the overwhelming consensus of the global scientific community that harmful climate change results largely from burning fossil fuels. Yearly profits of many billions of dollars motivate fossil fuel companies to promote denial of scientific fact, even if it undermines public health and safety.
Sources
A.L.E.C. Behind Anti-Climate Science Bills Inside Climate News Posted: 26 Jan 2012 08:47 AM PST
ALEC Model Bill Behind Push To Require Climate Denial Instruction In Schools
By Steve Horn, Jan 26 2012, at Desmoblog.com, Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science
http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-model-bill-behind-push-require-climate-denial-instruction-schools
Climate change skepticism seeps into science classrooms
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-climate-change-school-20120116,0,2808837.story
Previous influence of ALEC on state governments:
Six Extreme Right-Wing Attacks by ALEC in State Governments
http://www.truth-out.org/6-extreme-right-wing-attacks-alec-state-governments/1311782359 This summarizes the ALEC documentation exposed by Center for Media and Democracy.
Center for Media and Democracy Exposure of ALEC: http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
See also: ALEC exposed, The Nation, John Nichols, August 2011, http://www.thenation.com/article/161978/alec-exposed
