Apple, citing climate, tells U.S. Chamber iQuit

A man walks on the Apple Inc., campus in Cupertino, California February 25, 2009, where the company was holding a shareholders meeting.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Monday became the latest company to quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because the technology company disagrees with the business group's climate change policy.

"We would prefer that the chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis," Catherine Novelli, a vice president of government affairs at Apple, wrote in a letter dated Monday to the business group.

Novelli wrote that Apple resigned its membership in the business group "effective immediately."

Last month three big power utilities, Exelon Corp, PG&E Corp and PNM Resources Inc, said they were leaving the chamber over the group's stance on climate.

Other companies have offered critiques of the Chamber, which has pushed for public hearings to challenge the scientific evidence of manmade climate change. These critics say the chamber's views fail to reflect the broad views of its members on climate.

After Exelon announced its departure last month, the chamber said in a statement it favors "mainstream, common sense views" on climate change but opposed a climate bill that the House of Representatives narrowly passed in June.

Senate Democrats unveiled their version of the bill last week that built on the House legislation, though the future of the bill is uncertain.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)