Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Tennessee Chamber) demonstrates negative engagement on climate policy on the federal level and in the state of Tennessee. The group actively supports legislation that promotes the long-term role of fossil fuel infrastructure and opposes circular economy legislation. The Tennessee Chamber states on its website that it is the Tennessee affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the American Chemistry Council, although the exact relationship between these groups is unclear.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: The Tennessee Chamber appears to have limited, negative top-line messaging on climate policy. In its 2024 Legislative Results Report, it lists a number of measures it has engaged on, and states that it has been “mainly a year of defense” against energy and environmental regulation in the state. The group does not appear to have taken a public position on the need for IPCC-demanded emissions reductions globally or the Paris Agreement.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policy: The Tennessee Chamber has limited engagement on climate-related policy beyond the energy transition, but appears to oppose circular economy legislation in Tennessee. On its website, last accessed in October 2024, it opposed Tennessee Senate Bill 2131, which would ban single-use paper and plastic bags from Tennessee stores. In its 2024 Legislative Results Report, the group opposed Senate Bill 573, which would allocate funds to create an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program in Tennessee. Both bills were defeated in 2024.
Positioning on Energy Transition: The Tennessee Chamber demonstrates negative positions on the energy transition and has consistently advocated for policies supporting domestic fossil fuel infrastructure. In particular, its engagement heavily misaligns with scientific guidance on the need to phase out fossil gas in the energy mix. In an April 2024 joint comment to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the group opposed California's request to create regulations to decarbonize freight rail in California. If granted, this would provide the California Air Resources Board (CARB) the ability to create rail standards more ambitious than current federal regulations. CARB has already been granted this regulatory authority regarding vehicle standards by the EPA, and its more ambitious automotive regulation has spread to several other states in the country.
The Tennessee Chamber is active on issues of energy infrastructure. In a June 2024 post on X, it generally supported federal permitting reform efforts for energy projects without taking a clear position on the need to phase out fossil fuels or increase renewables in the energy mix. In its 2023 Legislative Results Report, the Tennessee Chamber supported Public Chapter (PC) 45, which prohibits Tennessee municipalities from banning appliances based on their energy source, as well as Public Chapter 154, which creates a list of energy sources that must be included in any clean or renewable energy standard implemented by Tennessee municipalities. PC 154 specifically mandates that fossil gas be allowed in any clean energy standards created by local Tennessee governments. Both bills were successfully passed into law in 2023.
The Tennessee Chamber has supported similar preemption bills in earlier legislative sessions. According to a March 2022 article by the Associated Press, the Tennessee Chamber directly advocated to state Senator Ken Yager to introduce Senate Bill 2077 (SB 2077), which restricts any local government from prohibiting fossil fuel infrastructure in its jurisdiction. That same month, the group verbally testified before the Tennessee Senate Commerce and Labor Committee in support of the bill, stating that prohibiting local governments from enacting an ordinance to limit fossil fuel projects was a necessary measure to ensuring “certainty to the regulated community, local governments, as well as general public, that these necessary critical infrastructures be developed.” In April 2022, Tennessee Chamber CEO Bradley Jackson wrote an opinion piece in the Tennessean in which he supported the legislation as a means to ensure that “Tennessee is not a roadblock to expanded American energy production and distribution.” In the same piece, Jackson cited the crisis in Ukraine as justification for expanding domestic fossil fuel production and infrastructure. SB 2077 subsequently passed in the Senate and was signed into law by Governor Lee in May 2022.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in 2024.