ALEC Misrepresents EDF’s Participation in its Annual Meeting

(NEW YORK – October 3, 2014) On NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show yesterday, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) CEO Lisa Nelson tried to use Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to back up her claim that ALEC is dedicated to open-minded “dialogue between all sides with respect to climate change.” As EDF has made clear time and time again, ALEC is anti-environmental, dishonest about whether climate change exists, and waging an all-out attack on clean energy. It is flat-out wrong to suggest EDF and ALEC are partners.

“Lisa Nelson misrepresented EDF’s participation in ALEC’s annual meeting. EDF takes bipartisanship seriously, and the consequences of climate change are so severe and time is so short that we will talk about our solutions with just about anyone. In this case, an EDF staffer spoke at ALEC’s annual meeting about innovative clean energy finance and energy efficiency ideas – ideas that ALEC has opposed.

“Alternative energy financing approaches such as on-bill repayment and property assessed clean energy (PACE) are solutions EDF supports, and that we believe everyone should support. Even ALEC.”

• Jim Marston, Vice President, US Climate and Energy, Environmental Defense Fund