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WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - Oil company BP saidon Monday it has stopped supporting conservative political groupALEC, becoming the latest corporation to end its membership in agroup critics say works to deny the existence of climate change.
"We have determined that we can effectively pursue policymatters of current interest to BP without renewing ourmembership in ALEC," a spokesman said. BP was the second largeoil company to drop support of the group after OccidentalPetroleum cut ties last year.
Companies have come under pressure from environmental andcivic groups to end their associations with the AmericanLegislative Exchange Council, a coalition of about 2,000 statelawmakers and corporations that promotes free trade and limitedgovernment intervention.
With the sharp drop in oil prices since last year, energycompanies have also come under pressure to cut capital costs,personnel, and other expenses.
The BP spokesman would not comment further on what causedthe company to take the move.
Common Cause and other civic groups have said ALEC promotesmeasures to deny the existence of climate change, defund publicservices and limit workers' protections.
Late last year online auction company Ebay Inc ended its association with ALEC. Earlier in 2014, Google did the same. Google executive chairman Eric Schmidtsaid his company wanted out because ALEC was "literally lying"about climate change, and several other tech companies stoppedsupporting ALEC afterwards.
ALEC spokesman Bill Meierling said his group looks forwardto potential future partnerships with BP. "ALEC is proud tostand with American business, especially energy companies, toadvance jobs, opportunity and innovation across the UnitedStates," he said. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Diane Craft)
