Why do corporations support regulating greenhouse gas but fund a lobby that opposes it?

No trade association has ever reflected the views of any of its members 100% though, so if that's the test of whether a company can belong, they simply wouldn't exist. Only Xerox speaks for Xerox, and we assert divergent views from our trade associations from time to time, while still feeling that overall our membership dues serve our shareholders' interests when the total picture is considered.

An Alcoa spokesman said simply, "We join different groups for different reasons."

What remains unclear is why, with its membership divided, the chamber has been such a staunch opponent of climate change regulation. In response to last year's Lieberman-Warner climate bill, the chamber ran a TV commercial showing a family shivering in their own home and a businessman literally running to work. Regulating greenhouse gases, the ad said, could make it "too expensive to heat our homes, drive our cars, or power our lives." The chamber and its allies also held "dialogues" in about 10 swing states, challenging climate science and arguing that regulation would destroy between 3 million and 4 million jobs and raise household energy costs by $4,000 to $6,700 a year by 2030. Scary stuff.

When I spoke to Karen Harbert, she was more measured. The chamber, she said, supports government actions to promote clean energy and energy efficiency, including long-term tax credits for wind and solar power, reforming regulation to make it easier to build electricity transmission lines, and big investments in nuclear energy and clean-coal technology. "It is hugely important for this country to be able to use its more than 200 years' worth of coal to produce electricity," Harbert said.

But, she said, the aggressive reductions in emissions called for by the Waxman-Markey draft simply can't be met at a reasonable price with today's technology. "The first thing we should look at is, Are the technologies ready?" she said. Of course, companies that support federal regulation say a major purpose of capping carbon emissions is to stimulate investment in new, clean-energy technology.