Everyone understands climate change is occurring. And the people who oppose it are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and making the world a much worse place. And so we should not be aligned with such people. They re just literally lying.
— Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, on how the company s support of ALEC, a think tank that funds climate-change deniers, was a mistake. We funded them as part of a political game for something unrelated… we re trying to not do that in the future, he said on NPR s Diane Rehm Show Monday.
Environmental and public-advocacy groups delivered more than 230,000 signatures to Google in December, urging it to sever ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council. As we wrote then, they called their campaign Don t Fund Evil.
Schmidt didn t say when Google ended its membership in ALEC, which said Google was present at the group s annual meeting in mid-August. In a statement Monday, ALEC said it would miss Google.
It is unfortunate to learn Google has ended its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council as a result of public pressure from left-leaning individuals and organizations who intentionally confuse free market policy perspectives for climate change denial, the group said.
The Sierra Club, one of the groups in the alliance that started the Don t Fund Evil campaign, applauded Google s move.
This is a victory for the nationwide grassroots coalition targeting ALEC and its supporters and a victory for common sense. Any company that is investing in clean energy climate solutions like Google shouldn t support the fossil fuel lobbyists who are trying to kill wind and solar power across the country, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a press release.
Google becomes the latest company to leave ALEC. Microsoft did so over the summer, citing the group s environmental policies. And MSNBC reports that 30 big companies have also walked away because of the group s stances on Stand Your Ground and voter-registration laws.
Photo of Eric Schmidt by Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group archives
