September 27, 2010
Lobbying: Industry spent $500M to stall climate bills – report
Published in E & E News
Big Oil and other special interests have spent more than $500 million on campaign contributions and lobbying to defeat global warming legislation and clean energy initiatives, according to a report released today by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
The liberal group's analysis, "Dirty Oil: Big Oil & Friends Spent $500 Million+ to Defeat Global Warming Pollution Reductions," looked at the top 20 oil production, mining and electric utilities companies and the 13 trade associations representing interests directly or indirectly involved in the energy business between January 2009 and June 2010.
"While big oil, dirty coal, and other special interests profit from inaction, everyday Americans will pay the price for doing nothing," said Daniel Weiss, a senior fellow and director of climate strategy for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, in a news release accompanying the report.
The center found that the 20 energy groups spent $242 million on lobbying during that 18-month time period, while the trade associations spent an additional $290 million.
And months ahead of a bruising midterm election season, the groups had spent $8.3 million to support candidates they endorsed or in opposition to candidates who supported global warming or clean energy legislation that they opposed. The campaign spending figures were through June 30; the next fundraising quarter ends Thursday, and quarterly reports are due Oct. 15.
The amount of money spent on lobbying and campaign contributions is only part of the story, Weiss said.
While voters favor legislation that would curb global warming or promote clean energy, Weiss said tough questions ought to be asked of members of Congress -- and specifically senators who have opposed climate change legislation.
Senators will vow, he said, "that lobbying plays no impact nor do campaign contributions but if that is the case why is so much money spent on those two things?"
The Center for American Progress Action Fund released the report now because of the Senate's failure to move forward with clean energy legislation. In 2009, the House passed the "American Clean Energy and Security Act" that would put a cap on carbon emissions. The measure stalled in the Senate.
Carol Raulston, senior vice president for communications for the National Mining Association, said her organization is working hard to protect the interests of its members. And she noted that her association may report greater spending than other groups because it files the same report for lobbying as it does for the IRS and lists more spending activity.
"There has been a lot of activity -- legislative and regulatory -- in areas of interest to our members," Raulston said. "I don't think that those are out of line with the size and interest of our membership."
The National Mining Association was listed as the ninth-largest association contributor to the anti-climate change effort and spent ....
