Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: The US Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) demonstrates active opposition to US climate policy. While the Chamber appears to hold mixed positions on climate change in its top-line messaging, its direct engagement reveals consistently oppositional positions to specific climate policies, and a sustained effort to weaken the ambition of proposed regulations across multiple policy areas. The Chamber has advocated in support of specific fossil fuel projects, including the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and has actively advocated for the repeal of several federal climate regulations, including the EPA’s power plant rules, methane regulations, and regulations to support the decarbonization of transportation.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: The association’s top-line positions on climate policy appear mixed in recent years. In a June 2024 blog, the Chamber appeared to recognize the necessity of responding to climate change, calling on “government, businesses and households to invest in resilience” as climate change-induced weather events continue to escalate in frequency and severity. Another June 2024 blog highlighted the Chamber’s support for “private sector opportunities” provided by climate legislation such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. The Chamber appears broadly supportive of Paris Agreement goals, and was a signatory of the B7 Tokyo Summit Joint Recommendation in April 2023, calling on the G7 to “show leadership” and set ambitious pathways for countries to achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) “with a view to achieving climate neutrality by 2050.” However, the association has consistently appeared to oppose regulatory action to address climate change, such as in a March 2025 blog decrying the “regulatory overreach” of a number of climate-related regulations from the Biden administration.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policy: The Chamber has actively and consistently opposed various forms of climate policy. In a March 2025 joint letter to Congress, the group advocated for the use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to repeal the EPA’s waivers for California’s regulations to support the decarbonization of transportation. In a February 2025 letter to Congress, the Chamber strongly advocated for Congress to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act's methane fee. The Chamber opposed the EPA’s use of the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (SC-GHG) to determine the value of climate-related benefits from methane emissions reductions in March 2024 comments to the agency, suggesting that the EPA was acting beyond its statutory authority. In October 2023 comments to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Chamber sought to reduce the stringency of proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards, arguing that “sustaining annual fuel efficiency improvements in 2027 at the pace proposed is unrealistic” and that the standards “go too far, too fast.” In June 2023 testimony by the Global Energy Institute (GEI), a subgroup of the US Chamber, GEI Vice President Heath Knakmuhs strongly opposed the EPA’s power plant rules, reiterating a similar message that the proposed regulations are “too much, too fast.” The Chamber went on to submit comments on the power plant rules in December 2023 suggesting that the regulations violate Section 111 of the Clean Air Act.
However, the Chamber appears more positively engaged on policy related to the circular economy. In July 2023 comments on the EPA’s Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, the Chamber supported the use of the Waste Management Hierarchy to guide legislative development, as well as “leveraging the UN Global Plastics Pollution Agreement” to promote innovation on the use of virgin materials.
Positioning on Energy Transition: The Chamber appears most active on policy related to the energy transition, and has demonstrated consistently obstructive advocacy. In a March 2025 letter to the Secretary of the Department of Energy, the group strongly advocated for lifting the Biden administration’s permitting freeze on liquified natural gas (LNG) exports, and advocated for a long-term role for fossil gas in the energy mix in a joint letter to the G7 energy ministers in the same month. The Chamber previously urged the Secretary of the Department of Energy to repeal restrictions on permits for LNG export facilities in a January 2024 coalition letter, and called on the Biden Administration to reverse its decision to pause exports in a March 2024 letter.
The Chamber has also been highly active on the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) Section 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit. In a February 2025 joint letter to Congress, the group opposed a repeal of the credit while emphasizing a prominent role for fossil gas-based hydrogen. The Chamber was also highly engaged on the credit in 2024, engaging through several iterations of comments, coalition letters, and direct testimony in which the Chamber advocated for weaker implementation of the tax credit, calling for changes to the framework that would allow exemptions for the use of fossil gas as a hydrogen production feedstock. The group also signed a January 2025 joint letter defending the IRA’s carbon capture and storage (CCS) credit, 45Q, without clearly supporting the energy transition or the need for decarbonization in its messaging.
The group has also advocated for permitting reform to facilitate the buildout of fossil fuel infrastructure. In a March 2025 joint comment to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the Chamber advocated for permitting reform to support accelerated development of fossil fuel projects. In May 2023, Chamber CEO Suzanne Clarke submitted a letter to Congress advocating for the permitting reform provisions in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, urging approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q2 2025.