Corporate America is patting its own back today on Earth Day, touting the fact that businesses have spent $1 trillion over the past 30 years on environmental cleanups. “The theme is: ‘Thank business for cleaning up the environment,'” said US Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Frank Coleman. Environmentalists are not buying the talk. “To the extent that the trade associations devote all of their resources to protecting the interests of the least environmentally responsible members and trying to gut environmental laws, it’s just more than a little hypocritical,” said Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970 and leader of the Earth Day 2000 campaign.
