CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
May 18, 2009 – 8:57 p.m.
Big Oil Spends Bigger Money on Lobbyists
By Bennett Roth and Alex Knott, CQ Staff
As many organizations and businesses have cut back on lobbying expenses in these tough financial times, the nation’s oil companies are shelling out record amounts of money to influence Congress on issues as diverse as climate change and tax and budget plans.
Overall, oil and gas industry players spent $37.3 million to lobby the federal government in the first three months of this year, 52 percent more than they did on average for the quarterly reporting periods in 2008, according to a CQ analysis of lobbying disclosure reports recently filed with Congress.
The spike in Big Oil spending comes as overall lobbying expenditures are slightly down and as some industries, such as banking and mortgage companies, have dramatically reduced their expenses.
Industry officials and outside observers say energy companies are spending more on lobbying because they are in better financial condition than their counterparts in other industries. They may also feel the need to respond to an aggressive White House agenda that includes costly climate change legislation and efforts to generate additional revenue from oil drilling.
“There is a heck of a lot on the congressional platter that affects the oil industry. There is a lot of self-interest involved here,” said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program for Public Citizen, a watchdog group.
Others speculated that companies that have received federal bailouts might be reducing their lobbying activities to avoid criticism from lawmakers or the public. The oil industry, which traditionally has been more aligned with Republicans, also must work harder to have input with the Democratic administration and Congress.
The oil company that most dramatically upped its lobbying tab was Houston-based ConocoPhillips, which spent nearly $6 million in the first quarter of this year. By contrast, its lobbying expenditures averaged $2.1 million for each quarter in 2008.
Red Caveney, senior vice president for government affairs at ConocoPhillips, attributed at least some of the ebb and flow of lobbying expenditures to the election cycle. “My guess is, you are probably spending the least when you are finishing up the eighth year of a two-term president,” he said, referring to President George W. Bush , whose final year in office was 2008.
Caveney said that ConocoPhillips’ expenses were also up, in part, because its 2009 report includes changes in the way it reports lobbying: It now includes state as well as federal lobbying expenses on its disclosure forms to Congress.
Now that the Democrats control both Congress and the White House, ConocoPhillips is looking for a Democrat to fill a lobbyist vacancy, but many good prospects have taken Capitol Hill jobs, said Caveney, who was hired at the oil company this year after serving as president of the industry trade association, the American Petroleum Institute (API).
On issues such as climate change, the oil industry is playing defense.
On Monday, Jack Gerard, Caveney’s successor at API, said his organization opposed the climate change legislation (
The climate change proposal unveiled by committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman , a California Democrat, is “unacceptable as drafted,” Gerard said.
“We probably didn’t have a front-row seat in the dialogue,” he said. Nevertheless, Gerard vowed to continue to express the industry’s views.
In the first quarter of this year, API spent $1.8 million on lobbying, a nearly 50 percent increase over the $1.2 million the organization spent, on average, in each quarter of 2008.
Another top issue for the industry is President Obama’s proposed budget, which API contends would constitute “a huge tax bite on the oil and gas industry.” API lists 11 proposed revenue-raisers in the budget plan it is opposed to, including additional excise taxes on offshore oil and gas production and reinstating superfund taxes.
The industry claimed victory recently when the Interior Department opted to retain a decision made in the George W. Bush administration not to use protection of the polar bear as justification to reduce greenhouse gases, even though the bears’ Arctic habitat is endangered by warming climates. The oil industry had vigorously opposed using the Endangered Species Act protection as a reason to regulate polluters.
Oil and gas companies are deeply involved in discussions dealing with climate change legislation, but they are not in agreement on the various proposals to curb the problem. ConocoPhillips, BP and Shell have joined the United States Climate Action Partnership, which has endorsed cap-and-trade proposals included in House committee legislation. ExxonMobil favors a carbon tax to reduce global warming.
Not Just Energy Issues
Not all of the oil companies’ lobbying is directly related to energy issues. In its lobbying disclosure forms, ExxonMobil listed legislation that would have levied an additional tax on bonuses received from certain recipients of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP, PL 110-343).
The House passed the bonuses measure (
An ExxonMobil spokesman, Alan Jeffers, could not say what position the company took on the bonus legislation. He said that ExxonMobil has a compensation policy that links executive compensation “to the long-term viability of the company.”
ExxonMobil, which is based in Irving, Texas, and ranked second among all organizations in lobbying for the first quarter, spent $9.3 million during that period, which is $2 million more than its average quarterly amount last year.
California-based Chevron shelled out $6.8 million this past quarter, a little more than double the $3.2 million that was spent on average per quarter last year. “We lobby on a range of interests for the company that fall outside of a narrow energy focus, including international issues,” spokesman Morgan Crinklaw said, adding that the increase in Chevron’s lobbying expenses was driven largely by payments to associations and coalitions that the company isn’t required to disclose.
With Obama’s emphasis on alternative fuel sources, Big Oil has some company on Capitol Hill from smaller energy firms. Solar energy equipment manufacturers spent $642,500 on lobbying in the first quarter of this year, a 128 percent increase over what they doled out on average for each quarter last year. Wind energy companies spent $1.4 million on lobbying, an 83 percent increase.
The large presence of energy lobbyists on Capitol Hill is understandable, said G.K. Butterfield , a Democrat from North Carolina who sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
“In defense of the industry, they are scared to death we are going to legislate them out of business,” he said.
Comments
It's time to nationalize the oil companies, seize their vast assets, and apply them towards REAL research into producing energy WITHOUT BURNING ANYTHING.
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