It’s been accepted as a truism that business is naturally opposed to the environment and those of us who care about it. That’s a load of crap. There are plenty of bad apples, to be sure, and we can all list a large number of offenders, but there are businesses that are doing the responsible and right thing by standing up for clean energy. What’s more, they’re uniting under the umbrella of a new organization, American Businesses For Clean Energy.

American Businesses for Clean Energy (ABCE) is an initiative to demonstrate large and small business support for Congressional enactment of clean energy and climate legislation that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ABCE’s goal is to create a single place on the web where individual companies and business organizations can register their support for Congressional action, and to demonstrate the depth and breadth of business support for this legislation. That’s why the companies listed on this site range from large companies to small, local to multi-national, and from all sectors of the economy.

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ABCE has a purpose distinct from business coalitions. ABCE is the ‘big umbrella’ under which any business that supports clean energy and climate legislation should be listed, and it is easy to be listed on the site: all a business has to do is enter some basic information to be listed. There are no dues, no meetings, and no further obligations for firms that only want to be listed. ABCE does not develop or evaluate specific policy proposals, nor will ABCE lobby Congress; these roles are already well-served by the existing coalitions. ABCE supports other business networks by making it easy for businesses to list and link to any business network they participate in from the ABCE site.

What’s more, companies that want to do more can be directed to other organizations or network with other businesses through the umbrella site.

The people running these companies are getting involved for two big reasons.

First, they see that clean energy offers a boom for our country’s economy in the future. Secondly, they realize that environmental degradation isn’t good for business. It’s hard to make a profit when roads are flooded, crops are wiped out by drought, freak storms destroy massive amounts of infrastructure, and massive snowfalls shut down power and transportation.

And with this kind of backing from the business community, every “pro-business” politician needs to be asked how they can stand in the way of clean energy legislation.