Google will not be renewing its membership to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) because, according to Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt, the group is lying about climate change.
Schmidt said during a recent radio interview with National Public Radio's "The Diane Rehm Show" that facts of climate change "are not in question anymore," and people who oppose it "are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and are making the world a much worse place," reported the Washington Post.
"The company has a very strong view that we should make decisions in politics based on facts - what a shock," he told Rehm. Groups like ALEC who argue against research showing anthropogenic climate change is occurring are "literally lying," said Schmidt.
Therefore, Schmidt reasoned that Google "should not be aligned with such people."
Google's support of ALEC was due to an unrelated issue not identified by Schmidt, but he did say that he thinks "the consensus within the company was that that was some sort of mistake, and so we're trying to not do that in the future."
ALEC CEO Lisa Nelson responded with a statement saying, "It is unfortunate to learn Google has ended its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council as a result of public pressure from left-leaning individuals and organizations who intentionally confuse free market policy perspectives for climate change denial."
"ALEC believes in freedom of speech and opinion. Google is an important voice on these and many other issues, and we will miss their perspective in our discussions."
Microsoft also previously dropped its support for ALEC because of its climate change views, among other issues which "conflicted directly with Microsoft's values," said the Washington Post.
The ALEC organization is partially underwritten by Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries, Duke Energy and Peabody Energy, and has not only questioned the validity of scientific research related to climate change but has also challenged regulations on coal-fired power plants and fought against alternative forms of energy.
