New Mexico's largest utility, PNM, is leaving the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of a disagreement over the chamber's approach to climate change legislation.

The Chamber has called for a modern-day "Scopes Monkey Trial" over the science of climate change, while PNM and its chief executive Jeff Sterba have been a leader nationally in pushing for regulation of greenhouse gases.

PNM spokesman Don Brown just sent out the following statement:

Our chairman and CEO, Jeff Sterba, let his term on the U.S. Chamber of

Commerce board expire when it ended in January, due largely to time

constraints with his schedule. While a member, he had not been active

on the board for at least the previous year.

At PNM Resources, we see climate change as the most pressing

environmental and economic issue of our time. Given that view, and a

natural limit on both company time and resources, we have decided that

we can be most productive by working with organizations that share our

view on the need for thoughtful, reasonable climate change legislation

and want to push that agenda forward in Congress. These organizations

include the Edison Electric Institute, the association of

shareholder-owned electric companies, and the U.S. Climate Action

Partnership, a group of businesses and environmental organizations of

which we are a founding member.

As a result, we have decided to let our membership in the U.S. Chamber

lapse when it expires at the end of this year.