The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is actively opposed to US action on climate change. ALEC has rejected the need for climate regulations in the US and has also previously been responsible for the disseminate misinformation about the science of climate change. In 2016-17, ALEC called on US President Trump to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, and in 2019, commended the President's decision to do so.

ALEC designs ‘model bills’ opposing or weakening climate regulations to be adopted by lawmakers, generally focusing on state legislatures. For example, the organization has previously produced model bills in an attempt to prohibit the US EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions and subsequently vehemently opposed the US Clean Power Plan. In 2018, ALEC affirmed its position to oppose "all Federal and state efforts to establish a carbon tax on fuels for electricity and transportation", including the Climate Leaders Council's carbon tax and dividend proposal which has otherwise been broadly accepted by the corporate sector. In a June 2022 press release, ALEC applauded the Supreme Court's decision to limit the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in West Virginia v EPA.

ALEC has also designed model bills to fight state-level renewable portfolio standards and to increase costs for energy users who generate their own electricity through solar panels via changes to net-metering policies, although in 2020 it opposed a petition to bring net metering under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a proposal interpreted by some as a risk to net metering laws nationwide.

ALEC continues to advocate for an expanded role for fossil fuels in the energy mix. In 2018, the organisation wrote model legislation to encourage US states to support the federal government's "America First Energy Plan" that prioritized the acceleration of US fossil fuel production and consumption. ALEC also drafted the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, a model policy which, since 2018, has been advanced by state legislators seeking to criminalize protests against fossil fuel infrastructure.

ALEC has also actively sought to delay and undermine efforts to decarbonize the transport sector. In 2018, the group designed a model bill to oppose preferential tax credit systems for electric vehicles, which has also been widely used by US states since to penalize electric vehicle users. In the same year, ALEC wrote model legislation to encourage US states to support the federal rollbacks of US vehicle fuel economy (CAFE) standards, including opposing the State of California's authority to set its own regulatory standards. In 2020, ALEC signed a letter in support of the federal administration's weakened Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles rule to override US CAFE standards.