Dive Brief:

• The conservative lobbying group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) appears to be losing support from energy companies as the group's position on climate change is increasingly at odds with most scientists and the direction of energy regulation in the United States, the Guardian reports. 
• ALEC says it does not deny climate change, but calls the issue a "historical phenomenon" and says it is opposed to any government policy "that distorts the energy market and picks winners and losers."
• Utility American Electric Power is the latest to leave the organization, saying that it is "reallocating our resources as we focus on our work with the states around the Clean Power Plan."

Dive Insight:

American Electric Power is the latest energy company to stop support for ALEC, joining Royal Dutch Shell and BP, several utility companies, and a growing list of global powerhouses. While it's tough to pinpoint one reason for the drop in support – companies like Amazon and Google left the fold over other issues – Shell specifically cited the group's environmental policies.

“ALEC advocates for specific economic growth initiatives, but its stance on climate change is clearly inconsistent with our own," Shell said in a statement released over the summer.

ALEC has supported policy to raise fees for homeowners who install solar panels and lobbied against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  

The Guardian has been reporting on defections from the lobbying group, and broke the story of AEP's departure. A spokesperson for the company told the newspaper, “we let [ALEC] know that we won’t be renewing our membership in 2016."

Greenpeace last year said it had confirmed that at least a half dozen utility companies had ceased supporting lobbying group in recent years, including MidAmerican Energy Holdings, Alliant Energy and Pacific Gas & Electric.

In response to the departure of AEP, a spokesman for ALEC said: “ALEC member legislators are more professional, more involved and more engaged than the average state legislator, and companies that depart – as a result of strategic shifts or any other reason – will unfortunately be absent from the educational exchange undertaken at Alec meetings.”