type: timeline_event
In 2010, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) adopted a model 'Resolution in Opposition to a Carbon Tax' that opposes carbon taxes at both state and federal levels, stating that 'the American Legislative Exchange Council opposes all Federal and state efforts to establish a carbon tax on fuels for electricity and transportation.' The resolution was developed while ALEC received tens of thousands of dollars from Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, and other large energy companies, and was introduced by state lawmakers in at least six legislatures virtually unchanged from its original corporate-drafted form. The resolution argued that carbon taxation would increase gasoline and electricity prices with 'costly impact on low-income families and businesses,' would be 'inconsistent with ALEC Principles of Taxation' by manipulating consumer choices, and would not impact emissions from China and India—revealing ALEC's systematic opposition to any climate policy mechanism.
The carbon tax opposition represented ALEC's strategic evolution from denying climate science to obstructing climate solutions—even market-based mechanisms championed by conservative economists. The resolution claimed carbon pricing would sacrifice 'a tremendous amount of economic growth for a reduction in carbon emissions,' framing any climate action as economically catastrophic while ignoring the far greater economic damages from unmitigated climate change. This rhetorical strategy allowed ALEC to oppose climate policy while claiming economic concern, obscuring how fossil fuel industries sought to externalize climate damages onto society while protecting corporate profits from any accountability for atmospheric pollution.
ALEC's Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force—whose Board of Directors included lobbyists from ExxonMobil, Peabody Energy, and Koch Industries—coordinated the carbon tax opposition campaign as part of a broader strategy to prevent any price signal that would make fossil fuels reflect their true social and environmental costs. The task force was chaired by the American Gas Association and previously chaired by Peabody Energy, with regular attendance by lobbyists from the American Chemistry Council, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, and Edison Electric Institute. This fossil fuel industry control ensured ALEC opposed not only regulatory approaches to climate change but also market mechanisms like carbon pricing that would threaten fossil fuel profitability.
The carbon tax resolution remains available on ALEC's website as template legislation for state lawmakers, demonstrating sustained fossil fuel industry opposition to climate solutions over multiple decades. The systematic obstruction of carbon pricing—a policy mechanism supported by economists across the political spectrum—reveals how ALEC functions not as a policy research organization but as a fossil fuel industry protection racket. By blocking both regulatory and market-based climate solutions, ALEC's campaign ensured that no politically viable path to climate action remained at the state level, sacrificing climate stability and public welfare to preserve fossil fuel industry profits. The resolution's deployment across multiple state legislatures without disclosure of ALEC's role or fossil fuel funding constituted systematic deception of voters regarding the corporate interests behind anti-climate legislation.