Duke Energy has left the National Association of Manufacturers. Duke began to evaluate memberships at the end of 2008 as part of cost-cutting measures. Duke also disagrees with NAM’s opposition to the Obama administration’s cap-and-trade policies. Not a manufacturer itself, the Charlotte-based energy company felt that it would have no effect on changing NAM’s mind.
NAM had seemed in lock step with Bush administration policies, pleasing many of its members on issues like energy and climate change but angering them on others like Chinese currency manipulation. With the new administration, NAM and its members may find themselves on the wrong side of many policy initiatives.
American manufacturing is a fraction of its former size but is undergoing a more or less successful reinvention. Leaner, greener and, according to some unions, meaner, the sector employs more than 12 million people in the United States even in the teeth of the global recession.
A founding member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, Duke and companies like it can vote at more places than the ballot box. Association lobbying, especially in a sector as powerful as manufacturing, has a lot more pull than one man-one vote. In this case, NAM has lost more than membership dues. A little bit of its clout just fell off.
