More Green Apple

iPod and MacBook users can now claim one less guilt trip: Apple Computer has become the latest high-profile defection from the US Chamber of Commerce; a result of the group's opposition to curbing greenhouse gas pollution.

In a letter dated today, communicating the company's immediate resignation, Catherine A. Novelli, the vice-president of worldwide government affairs at Apple wrote, "We strongly object to the chamber's recent comments opposing the E.P.A.'s effort to limit greenhouse gases."

The US Chamber of Commerce, one of that nation's most powerful business lobbies, has steadfastly opposed curbs on greenhouse gas pollution, via either a cap-and-trade market or mandates under the Clean Air Act.

In late August, the Chamber demanded that the Environmental Protection Agency justify its finding that excessive, human-created CO2 represented a danger to human health and the environment. William Kovacs, the chamber's senior vice president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs, told the Los Angeles Times this hearing would be "the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century...It would be evolution versus creationism. It would be the science of climate change on trial."

In recent weeks, the major utilities Exelon, PGE and PNM Resources have left the Chamber over its climate obstructionism; Nike resigned its position on the Chamber's board on Sept. 30, but remains a member, it says, to advocate from within for strong action on global warming.