American Legislative Exchange Council

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is an American non-profit organization ( 501 (c) (3) status), whose primary goal is the development and dissemination of bills with right-wing or business-friendly content for American states .

History and activities

ALEC was founded in 1973 by conservative activists Paul Weyrich , Henry Hyde and Lou Barnett . The long-term goals pursued by ALEC's bills include downsizing the state, removing regulations on corporations, and making it more difficult to hold economically or politically powerful people accountable. Corporations that donate to ALEC retain the right to veto the bills. In 2011, ALEC drafted bills for the privatization of education, the smashing of trade unions, the deregulation of central branches of industry and the introduction of "voter ID" laws (which have the effect of making it more difficult for poorer social classes to access the ballot box).

ALEC is one of the front groups of the organized climate change denial scene and is campaigning in several US states to limit educational offers regarding climate change. Among other things, the organization has been trying for years to prevent measures for environmental and climate protection. As reported by the British daily The Guardian , ALEC tried, among other things, in a major campaign in 2014 to get attorneys general to take legal action against the measures planned by Barack Obama to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Among other things, ALEC works closely with the then Attorney General of Oklahoma Scott Pruitt to prevent or soften various environmental protection regulations. In 2013, for example, Pruitt's office coordinated with ALEC to override two EPA regulations that included the use of renewable energies and the limitation of smog- causing chemicals. Lobby group members met with Pruitt and proposed text for him; An official of the organization wrote that the arguments put forward against this regulation would be more credible if they were put forward by the state. A few months later, Pruitt made the two applications.

ALEC's bills are introduced approximately 1,000 times a year in the legislatures of the various American states; around 200 come into force each year. The bills are only available to members: approximately 2,000 (almost exclusively Republican ) legislators and approximately 300 corporations. However, through a leak of over 800 documents, the content of ALEC's products was published and publicly analyzed in 2011, for example by The Nation magazine or the progressive non-profit organization Center for Media and Democracy . In 2011, FOIA inquiries from the liberal non-profit organization Common Cause resulted in the publication of previously secret information about ALEC. The publications provided u. a. for the civil rights organization Color of Change in December 2011, in open letters to ALEC member companies, asking how much those companies valued their minority customers; in the aftermath and even more after the death of Trayvon Martin (ALEC was responsible for spreading "stand your ground" laws that allow people to use lethal force in certain situations), several companies, including McDonald’s , Wendy's , Coca-Cola Cola , PepsiCo , Yum! Brands , Procter & Gamble and Intuit , donate to ALEC.

According to The Daily Beast , some IT companies joined in 2013, including Google and Facebook , Yelp , Microsoft and Yahoo as sponsors and supporting members. Microsoft ended its support in August 2014 after reports cited ALEC's opposition to renewable energy as the reason. At the end of September 2014, Google announced that ALEC membership would end at the end of the year. Support from ALEC was a mistake. Climate change is a fact, and the company must not stand in line with climate skeptics, as these people are "literally lying". Facebook, YELP, Yahoo and other IT companies also ended their support or announced this in 2014. In 2015 the oil company Shell followed suit , claiming that ALEC's "skeptical" position was incompatible with Shell's.

financing

The legislature's membership fees make up between 1 and 2 percent of the ALEC budget; the majority is donated by companies, foundations, business associations or wealthy private individuals. In the three fiscal years from 2007 to 2009, ALEC took in $ 21,615,465 from the latter and just under $ 250,000 from the legislature's membership fees. Brothers Charles and David Koch donated at least $ 200,000 to ALEC in 2009 through their endowments (Claude R. Lambe Foundation and Charles G. Koch Foundation). Other foundations include Pete Coors ' Castle Rock Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the Richard Mellon Scaifes Allegheny Foundation. ExxonMobil and its foundation and the American Petroleum Institute also donated to ALEC. Regular membership fees for corporations range from $ 7,000 to $ 25,000. B. for the right to vote in the task forces . The organization's "Private Enterprise Board" includes representatives from Koch Industries , Exxon Mobil , Peabody Energy and Energy Future Holdings .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mary Bottari: "The Sale of Wisconsin", in: Mari Jo Buhle and Paul Buhle (eds.): It Started in Wisconsin: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Labor Protest . Verso Books, 2012.
  2. ^ A b John Nichols: ALEC Exposed. A trove of documents reveals the vast corporate strategy of this powerful right-wing group. In: The Nation. July 12, 2011, accessed July 13, 2013 .
  3. ^ Riley Dunlap, Aaron M. McCright: Challenging Climate Change. The Denial Countermovement . In: Riley Dunlap, Robert J. Brulle (Eds.): Climate Change and Society. Sociological Perspectives. Report of the American Sociological Association's Task Force on Sociology and Global Climate Change . Oxford University Press 2015, 300-332, pp. 314f.
  4. ^ A b Amanda Peterka: Conservative Group Drafts, Promotes Anti-EPA Bills in State Legislatures . In: The New York Times , April 4, 2011. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  5. ↑ Suzanne Goldenberg: ALEC calls for penalties on 'freerider' homeowners in assault on clean energy. In: The Guardian , December 4, 2013. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  6. ^ Suzanne Goldenberg: Barack Obama's emissions plan comes under new line of attack. In: The Guardian , May 2, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  7. ↑ Trump's environmental officer "cuddled" with the oil industry . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  8. ^ The Pruitt Emails: EPA Chief Was Arm in Arm With Industry . In: New York Times , February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  9. ↑ a b Brendan Greeley: ALEC's Secrets Revealed; Corporations Flee. In: Bloomberg Businessweek. May 3, 2012, accessed July 13, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Ben Jacobs: Yelp Joins With Advocacy Group ALEC to Fight SLAPP Lawsuits. . In: The Daily Beast , August 15, 2013. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  11. ↑ Bernd Kling: Microsoft is leaving the conservative lobby group and is becoming more ecological. In: ZDNet / News. August 20, 2014, accessed August 22, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Google Chairman: Giving Money To ALEC Was A 'Mistake' . In: The Huffington Post , September 22, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  13. ^ Robert S. Eshelman: Silicon Valley Companies Follow Google's Lead By Cutting Ties with ALEC. In: Vice News . September 25, 2014, accessed September 26, 2014 .
  14. ^ Ed King: Shell to leave ALEC, citing climate change stance. (No longer available online.) In: RTCC News. August 7, 2015, archived from the original on August 21, 2015 ; accessed on August 9, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Lisa Graves: A CMD Special Report on ALEC's Funding and Spending. The Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch, July 13, 2011, accessed July 15, 2013 .