Will We Legislate Climate Change Action? Follow the Money.

Yesterday, the Center for Public Integrity released a report on a new lobbying industry springing up in Washington: The climate change lobby. Not surprisingly, it’s getting bigger. There are now 2,340 men and women attempting to influence our government on their response to climate change. Since 2003, the number of lobbyists working on the issue has increased 300 percent.

That’s great, in the sense that Washington is clearly now focused on the issue. The CPI estimates that $90 million has been spent on climate change lobbying in the last year (you know where we could better direct that money? To fixing climate change, you idiots. But that’s beside the point). What’s not great is who is paying for the lobbying. The sectors employing the most lobbyists are  manufacturing, power companies, oil and gas companies, and transportation companies (see the chart for more details).

So, they’re not lobbying for the legislation to be really comprehensive and have a lot of teeth. Just a guess.

I strongly urge you to read the full article here. They also have a great widget that allows you to search the climate change lobby by company name or by expenditures—a really helpful tool in seeing who will be influencing this debate. It gives a pretty scary sense of what might happen if we put the fate of our planet through the usual Washington ringer.

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