Groups Call on Wal-Mart to End Contributions to Anti-Environmental Candidates

Mon, 05 Feb 2007
From Earth Times.

Washington, DC – Eleven environmental and corporate accountability groups joined together to send a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott to call upon the world’s largest retailer to end its political contributions to anti-environmental candidates.

The letter accompanied a report prepared by Corporate Ethics International and Friends of the Earth, analyzing the company’s PAC contributions during the most recent election cycle. The report finds that while Wal-Mart has made a number of public commitments recently to reduce its environmental impact, its campaign contributions overwhelmingly support candidates who routinely vote against the environment.

The company’s campaign contributions fly in the face of Wal-Mart’s latest effort to burnish its environmental reputation with a statement this past weekend supporting a new business-endorsed plan on global warming. The majority of Wal-Mart PAC’s contributions have supported Members of Congress who have actively worked against legislative efforts to curb global warming and President Bush, who has fought against meaningful action on climate change.

“From Congress to the White House, Wal-Mart’s political dollars are supporting a very different environmental agenda than the company would have us believe,” said Mari Margil of Corporate Ethics International. “We call upon the company to ends its contributions to anti-environmental candidates and bring its stated intentions and actions in line.”

“If Wal-Mart is to ever be a true leader on the environment, it must address its political involvement,” said David Waskow of Friends of the Earth “Wal-Mart PAC contributes to candidates who actively support policies that fundamentally undermine, and indeed dwarf, the company’s stated goal to reduce its environmental impacts.”

The report, Wal-Mart’s Political Contributions to Anti-Environment Candidates, finds that during the 2005-2006 election cycle, Wal-Mart PAC gave money to more than 30 Members of Congress who scored 0% on the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Scorecard for the 109th Congress. Nearly 40% of contributions went to Members of Congress who have scored 10% or less and two-thirds went to those who scored less than 50%.

The full report and letter can be found at www.corporateethics.org and www.foe.org.

Read the article.