I'm going to get downmodded for saying this no doubt....
But having read both sides of the story here, it looks like the flow of the commentators are sort of missing what this power play was about.
The NCPPR wasn't trying to get Tim Cook riled up....they were trying to make millions of stockholders aware that Al Gore, whom both the left and right recognize as a nutjob, is the board member driving some weird decisions at Apple, and that Tim is backing him. There's nothing wrong with green data centers. But that's the tip of the iceberg. Al doesn't know the first thing about computers. And he's on the board of directors at Apple. And he's working (and succeeding) at driving Apple board discussions away from how to make computing devices and into "how to fight climate change." He's shifting the company away from what they're good at into something new, and political.
"Hey! You guys hired Lisa, the former head of the EPA to be a decision maker at Apple. What sense does that make? What qualifications does she have to make decisions for a tech company?"
"Hey! Fine with green data. Why are we looking at powerpoint presentations about fighting climate change instead of nextgen technology? Why is Al Gore giving the presentation?"
I have no love for the NCPPR, but I understand why they did it. I work at GE. If Jeff Immelt took Al Gore into the Board of Directors, and senior staff meetings were dominated by Al Gore talking about Climate Change instead of market penetration and product roll-out, I'd expect people to want to stand up and take notice.