Yesterdays hijinks in Washington D.C involving the United States Chamber of Commerce, a fake United States Chamber of Commerce, and the issue of pushing for climate change legislation was interesting at best - probably more so given our insanely fast-paced news gathering tendencies (Twitter was a fun medium to follow this story on) - but what might have been lost in all of it was part of the backstory that admittedly escaped us in early October. 

In case you missed it, here's some of what went down yesterday.  A group of self proclaimed political performance artists called The Yes Men posed as Chamber of Commerce officials pushing for comprehensive climate change legislation and held a fake press conference at the National Press Club as well as releasing a fake press release under the Chamber's name announcing that they, "reversed its position on climate change policy, and promised to immediately cease lobbying against the Kerry-Boxer bill." Within minutes, a representative of the real Chamber of Commerce broke up the conference and the two officials, one real, one fake, argued about who actually worked for the Chamber.  You can watch the video after the jump.  As well as reaction from the Rachel Maddow show.

The Yes Men are best known for posing as corporate executives in order to reveal how corporate greed negatively influences public policy, and yesterday they, as the Huffington Post put it, "sought to reveal--and repeal--relentless corporate lobbying of elected officials aimed at derailing domestic climate legislation and a much-needed global climate accord."

But amidst all the jokes was the fact that just in the last half of a month, some major corporations have pulled out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of the organization's strident criticism of plans to reduce U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions.  Two weeks ago, Apple was one of them saying, "Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us in this effort. And as a result, we have decided to resign our membership effective immediately." The others to pull out have been the power companies Pacific Gas and Electric, PNM Resources, and Exelon.  And Nike resigned from its position on the Chamber's board but not its membership. Others, including Xerox, Lockheed Martin and Caterpillar, are under pressure from environmentalists and shareholder activists to do the same.

A Wall Street Journal blog post reminds us that the Chamber's position hasn't changed, "Chamber President Tom Donohue has been vociferous in his opposition “cap and trade” legislation favored by the White House that would make industries pay for carbon emissions."

So the Chamber remains staunch, as staunch as their opposition to realizing the need for real climate change legislation, and you ask what you can do about it.  Your spending habits, and your commsumer behaviors could go a long way in voicing your displeasure for companies that continue to ignore the need for change, or worse, support it. AT&T is helping fund a $100 million campaign by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to kill clean energy and health care in Congress, and Toyota is on board as well (green apps and Prius's are easy to hide behind).  Voice you displeasure for AT&T HERE and for Toyota HERE.

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