Under pressure from environmental groups and tech activists, Google said it will sever ties with the conservative lobbying group ALEC because it is "literally lying" about climate change.
The tech giant cited the American Legislative Exchange Council's indefensible position on climate change as the key reason it won't renew its membership at the end of the year.
"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, they're just literally lying," Google chairman Eric Schmidt told NPR Sept. 22 as the United Nations tackled climate change.
ALEC CEO Lisa Nelson on Sept. 22 called Google's decision "unfortunate," citing "public pressure from left-leaning individuals and organizataions who intentionally confuse free marketing policy perspectives for climate change denial." A day later ALEC released an outline of its stance on renewable energy, saying "businesses should determine their renewable energy goals independent of a government mandate and according to the best locally available technology."
Bloomberg reported last month that Microsoft withdrew from ALEC over its fight against renewable energy.
ALEC has been successful in creating and promoting conservative model legislation for statehouses. Google worked with the group on tech issues and privacy.
Laura Anderson, who rose to VP/GM of global communications and events in a nearly 20 year stint at Intel, will take on the Americas technology chair at Burson following the completion of the BCW and H+K merger on July 1.
WE Communications has partnered with ROKK Solutions to form the WE ROKK AI service.
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