ALEC Distributes Climate Denial Model Legislation to Kill Regional Climate Pacts

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) distributed model bills in 2010 designed to kill regional climate pacts like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in New England and the mid-Atlantic, marking a strategic shift from federal to state-level climate denial efforts. ALEC activist Clint Woods confirmed in September 2010 that RGGI and other regional cap-and-trade regimes had become the “new battlefield” since federal climate legislation had been derailed. While receiving tens of thousands of dollars from Koch Industries and ExxonMobil, ALEC adopted a model resolution stating that “a tremendous amount of economic growth would be sacrificed for a reduction in carbon emissions.”

Corporate-Funded State Climate Policy Obstruction

ALEC’s 2010 climate strategy focused on preventing state momentum on renewable energy policy and greenhouse gas standards, believing this would have a dampening effect on federal policy momentum. The model legislation was introduced by lawmakers in at least six state legislatures virtually unchanged from ALEC’s original corporate-drafted form, with legislators introducing the bills under their own names without disclosing ALEC’s role or corporate authorship. ALEC wrote resolutions that would discourage states from participating in nation-wide renewable energy targets and indicated they would move their battle to states with existing renewable energy mandates.

ALEC Energy Principles Deny Climate Science

ALEC’s Energy Principles explicitly embraced climate denial, stating that “Climate change is a historical phenomenon and the debate will continue on the significance of natural and anthropogenic contributions.” The principles argued that “Mandates to transform the energy sector and use renewable energy sources place the government in the unfair position of choosing winners and losers”—framing fossil fuel subsidies as free market outcomes while characterizing renewable energy support as government interference. This rhetorical strategy allowed ALEC to oppose climate action while claiming to support free enterprise, obscuring the massive government subsidies to fossil fuel industries.

Nationwide Network of Legislative Capture

ALEC’s climate denial model legislation operated through a nationwide network where corporate lobbyists received “equal voice and vote” with elected officials in drafting bills. Between 2010 and 2018, ALEC model legislation was introduced in state legislatures approximately 2,900 times, with more than 600 bills enacted into law—often word-for-word from corporate-drafted templates. The climate denial movement aligned with ALEC worked in concert with other organizations to stall state-level climate policy across all 50 states simultaneously, creating a coordinated barrier to climate action.

Significance

ALEC’s 2010 climate legislation distribution represents the most systematic state-level legislative capture campaign in American history—fossil fuel companies essentially purchasing the ability to draft and deploy anti-climate legislation nationwide through compliant state legislators. The strategy’s brilliance lay in attacking climate policy at the state level after federal efforts stalled, preventing bottom-up momentum that might rebuild support for national action. ALEC’s success in killing regional climate pacts like RGGI demonstrated how corporate money could coordinate state legislative opposition to override local democratic support for climate action. The lack of transparency—with bills introduced under legislators’ names without ALEC attribution—constituted deception of voters who believed their representatives were authoring legislation in constituent interests rather than transcribing fossil fuel industry talking points.