Nike will relinquish its spot on the board of directors at the Chamber of Commerce. Nike to quit Chamber post

Nike will relinquish its spot on the board of directors at the Chamber of Commerce to protest the business lobby’s opposition to climate-change legislation.

"We believe that on the issue of climate change the Chamber has not represented the diversity of perspective held by the board of directors," the company says in a statement obtained by POLITICO. "Therefore, we have decided to resign our board of directors position."


Nike has long been a strong advocate for government action to combat global warming and has said it "fundamentally disagrees" with the Chamber's position on the climate bill. The company helped found Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy, a coalition of businesses supporting congressional action to address climate and energy legislation.

Although environmentalists have called on Nike to quit the lobbying association complete – as several high-profile corporations have recently — Nike plans to continue its membership in the Chamber in order to "advocate for climate change legislation" from within the organization, the company says.

Still, the announcement is another blow to the business lobby, which has come under intense fire for its position on cap and trade legislation. Over the past two weeks, three major utilities have left the group. Environmentalists heralded the departures as a weakening of the business community's traditional opposition to climate legislation.

On Monday, Chicago-based Exelon Corp. said it would not renew its membership in the Chamber; last week, Pacific Gas & Electric, a major California utility, and PNM Resources, a holding company that includes a large New Mexico utility, withdrew from the group.

A large part of the campaign against Chamber membership stems from the group’s call to launch a “Scopes Monkey Trial of the 21st century” about the science of climate change, referring to a 1926 trial that challenged Tennessee law mandating the teaching of the divine creation and forbidding the teaching of evolution.

“We 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,” wrote PG&E in a letter to the Chamber. “In our opinion, an intellectually honest argument over the best policy response to the challenges of climate change is one thing; disingenuous attempts to diminish or distort the reality of these challenges are quite another.”