"The carbon-based free lunch is over."

So says John W. Rowe, CEO of Exelon, one of the nation's largest utilities. The New York Times reports that Exelon is the latest company to quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the organization's opposition to climate change legislation. Rowe doesn't think that the end of free carbon means we are heading for an era of deprivation:

"Breakthroughs on climate change and improving our society’s energy efficiency are within reach."

Business leaders are particularly embarrassed by the call by a Chamber of Commerce vice president for a “Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century” to try the question of climate change. Utility executives, who have to have at least a passing acquaintance with science to do their jobs, don't like looking like yahoos.