ALEC

Ford Motor Company confirmed to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) that it is cutting ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that has drawn heavy criticism for promoting climate change denial and for opposing the development of renewable energy sources.

T-Mobile is the latest technology and communications company to kick the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to the curb. T-Mobile follows in the footsteps of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yelp in leaving the organization.

While the withdrawal of Google, Yahoo, Facebook and others from ALEC’s vast pool of corporate funders was widely celebrated by climate campaigners, a recent report released by Forecast the Facts and SumOfUS shows how Google – and many others who claim to do good by climate – are still funding climate denial in politics.

Facebook is no longer donating to the American Legislative Exchange Council. The far-right think tank went too far on topics like climate change to suit the conservative-friendly social media site, which should indicate just how far away from the mainstream ALEC has gotten.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt said Monday that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is "literally lying" that climate change is not a reality, and that its membership in ALEC "was some sort of mistake."

Watch Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille and other activists at a rally slam Virginia's Dominion Power for its unsavory ties to the business-über-alles group ALEC.

Microsoft has cut its ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative public-policy lobbying group, CNET reports. The group’s lobbying efforts to block the development of renewable energy apparently was the last straw for Microsoft, which noted in a statement that the company had been involved in ALEC’s Communication and Technology Task Force, but had cut all ties to the group and would no longer pay dues to it.

Late last week, legislative and lobbyist members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) voted on model legislation promoting both exports of gas obtained via fracking and vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG). Dubbed a “corporate bill mill” by its critics, ALEC is heavily engaged in a state-level effort to attack renewable energy and grease the skids for exports of U.S. oil and gas.

The American Legislative Council, the far-right lobbying group that is the clearinghouse and writer of much of the pro-corporate legislation sweeping the nation today, is trying to break into traditionally independent-minded Vermont. Republican state Rep Bob Helm is pushing ALEC's agenda as his own in a new op-ed.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, or have buried your head in the ideological sand, you should have noticed the newspaper editorials calling for Medicaid Expansion in Virginia. Virginia hospitals, health insurance plans, physicians, consumer groups, Chambers of Commerce, and even Republicans and former appointees of Governor McDonnell SUPPORT closing the coverage gap. What's the problem then? Speaker of the House of Delegates William “Bill” Howell.