There has been a lot of buzz in the last week about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its position on climate change. Several high-profile defections, and a public spat between Apple and the Chamber's President, Tom Donohue, have captured a lot of attention.

The Chamber is one of the largest business lobbying organizations in Washington, representing over 3 million business members. It's a huge organization, and more likely than not, your company is a member. It's generally pretty effective at representing business interests at a macro level in Washington, but as you might imagine, an organization this large and diverse is bound to eventually run into disagreement among its members. That appears to have happened, in a very public and embarrassing way, with the climate change legislation pending before Congress.

The Chamber says it is dedicated to climate change legislation, but in a "sensible" way. That means opposing the carbon cap and trade portion of the bill, which many environmentalists believe is the linchpin to any bill. Last week, three energy companies publicly left the Chamber. These utility companies are heavily invested in nuclear power plants, which would stand to benefit under carbon and trade. Then, Nike, a Board member of the Chamber, resigned its position, citing the Chamber's position on climate change. Finally, earlier this week Apple joined the exodus with a public departure. The National Resource Defense Council, which has long been campaigning for climate change legislation, quickly applauded the recent departures.

The Chamber seems nonplussed by all the attention. In a recent interview Donohue defended the Chamber's position, and made the point that overall the vast majority of member companies support the Chamber's positions. Donohue went so far as to release its response to Apple's departure, accusing Apple of not understanding the Chamber's position in a pretty snarky (for the business world anyway) letter. In the meantime, senior Democrats have already started to distance themselves from the Chamber, preferring instead to speak to alternative groups such as the Business Roundtable.

Apple is not the only tech company in the Chamber, of course, but it is a very high profile one. I predict it won't be the last tech company to leave the Chamber and join a competing organization. Carbon cap and trade may be just the excuse tech companies have been looking for to drop out, or it may be the real reason for leaving. The result is the same -- decreased influence for as long as Democrats continue to hold reins of power in Washington.