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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released its “The State of American Business 2012” plan this week, outlining their own vision of how to create jobs in America. There were no surprises in Chamber President Tom Donohue’s address to business leaders. He simply rehashed the same tired talking points that we’ve seen from them for years.

In addition to enacting what they call a “globally competitive tax code” and “fixing our broken immigration system,” the Chamber threw out some classic gems that persist despite being able to withstand the truth test. From their newly launched FreeEnterprise.com website:

Produce American Energy and Rebuild Infrastructure. Approve the Keystone XL pipeline to put up to 250,000 Americans to work over the life of the project while preventing the EPA from enacting new regulations on fracking that sabotage a natural gas revolution. Complete Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization, which is more than four years delayed, to strengthen our aviation system and deploy the NextGen air traffic control system. Renew surface transportation funding legislation before it expires in March and invest in water infrastructure.

Advance Regulatory and Legal Reform. Pass the Administrative Procedure Act to restore sound science, quality data, and common sense to the regulatory system while curbing regulatory overreach by EPA and the National Labor Relations Board. Stop the expansion of liability at home and abroad that is sucking the vitality out of our nation’s job creators.

Put more bluntly, this is the Chamber's message: Do away with environmental and health protections and let the same companies that brought us the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and countless other "accidents" expand oil drilling, fracking, and other dirty energy extraction methods in every possible place. "Trust us, we're experts," they say.

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Earlier this week, president Obama met with the US Chamber of Commerce to talk about the best way to create jobs in America. He told them that it was their patriotic duty to spend the trillions of dollars of cash reserves that they’re sitting on and create jobs. In the same breath, he told them that it was his duty to make sure that the government did everything possible to make businesses more comfortable and ensure that they have the perfect climate to rebuild our economy.

And the whole time that Obama was trying to break bread with the US Chamber, they were carrying out a secret campaign to infiltrate, discredit, and destroy liberal activist groups.

The folks over at ThinkProgress have uncovered emails from the Chamber’s hired men that detail the numerous ways in which the Chamber is trying to take down their political opponents.

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Canada’s National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE), a panel composed mainly of government appointees from industry and former Conservative politicians, has released a new report assessing whether Canada should “lead, lag, or harmonize” climate policies with the US, and the consequences of doing so.

In recent years, the Canadian federal government has opposed unilaterally acting on climate change, instead committing to harmonize greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions with the US in a continental approach. This has been a favourite position for Canadian Environmental Ministers wishing to postpone acting on climate change for fear of locking Canada into GHG emissions reductions, and notably for Jim Prentice who quit as Environment Minister late last year:

“Our determination to harmonize our climate change policy with that of the United States also extends beyond greenhouse gas emission targets: we need to proceed even further in aligning our regulations.”

“We will only adopt a cap-and-trade regime if the United States signals that it wants to do the same. Our position on harmonization applies equally to regulation…Canada can go down either road — cap-and-trade or regulation — but we will go down neither road alone.”

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In sharp contrast to denier’s claims that action against global warming will trigger economic catastrophe, a new study has concluded it would actually be cheaper to cut greenhouse-gas emissions than to suffer the consequences of a changing world.

In fact, the report by economists at Tufts University warns, “The longer we wait, the more painful and expensive the consequences will be.”

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"The Age of Consequences" report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the US, predicts that scarcity of resources may "dictate the terms of international relations" for years to come as rich countries could "go through a 30-year process of kicking away from the lifeboat."

Another report says energy needs in 2030 could rise more than 50% above current levels, mainly due to rapid economic growth in China and India. So who’s going to be kicking who?

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The surprise finding, announced by HSBC, the world’s fourth-largest corporation, showed India leading both the developed and developing worlds – far ahead of the UK, France, Germany and the US. HSBC said it shatters the widely held myth of the industrialized world leading the pack on global warming.