Energy and Global Warming News for April 28 — Climate Lobbying 101: Whoever gives the gold, makes the rules

Top Story

LOBBYING: Industry dollars go to a handful of influential Energy and Commerce members

As always, Congress is driven by the Golden Rule — whoever gives the gold, makes the rules:

Electric utilities, oil and gas corporations, coal producers and other energy industry interests poured more than $375,000 into the coffers of House Energy and Commerce Committee members during the first three months of 2009, according to an E&E examination of campaign finance records.

The dollars flowing to Energy and Commerce members — particularly Democratic moderates — further highlights the high stakes for the industry as lawmakers prepare to mark up a Democratic climate change and energy legislation next month.

At the top of the list for Democrats was former committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), who pulled in about $47,000 from the energy industry. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) — another moderate Democrat and former chairman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over climate issues — came in at a close second with more than $41,000.

Other major Democratic recipients of industry cash were much further down the list in terms of committee seniority but also represent swing votes on energy and climate legislation. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas) picked up $30,000, Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.) received about $22,000, and Rep. Zach Space (D-Ohio) received $27,000.

Space, a two-term lawmaker from a district that is a major hub for the coal industry, was among one the more prodigious fundraisers among all House Democrats, pulling more than $420,000 in the first three months of 2009. Space’s district leans Republican, and he is virtually certain to have a tough re-election fight next year.

Industry officials say financial contributions to lawmakers typically are a reflection of providing backing for members who understand and traditionally support their position on any number of legislative issues and say there is little relation between campaign donations and lawmakers’ position on any singular issue.

Still, those donations are also a slice of what has become an all-out lobbying blitz on both sides — involving contributions, direct lobbying and public relations campaigns — in advance of legislation that will likely have dramatic ramifications for the energy industry.

More details below:

The roughly $375,000 given to committee lawmakers represents amounts in the first quarter of 2009, according to congressional financial disclosure reports. That figure, however, only covers money given to lawmakers from the various political action committees (PACs) of corporations and advocacy groups and does not include donations from specific employees of the various companies or law firms that lobby on those issues.

The funding is also expected to escalate dramatically as lawmakers start more seriously gearing for the 2010 elections, particularly if members start attracting significant challenges to their seats. During the last election cycle, PACs gave more than $5 million to various members of the committee, most of whom are still on the panel, according to Center for Responsive Politics.

Already, a solid majority of the Energy and Commerce Committee has received at least one contribution from an electric utility or another energy industry entity, though in many instances it was just one or two donations totaling a couple thousand dollars. The bulk of the money went to a handful of lawmakers that could play a key role in crafting the climate change and energy legislation.

An overwhelming majority of the money — roughly 65 percent — went to the majority party, with Democrats bringing in more than $240,000 while Republicans pulled in roughly $131,000.

That represents part of an ongoing shift in fundraising as Democrats solidify power in Washington.

Since Republicans took control of Congress in 1995, they received more than two-thirds of the total contributions from electric utilities. After the 2006 election cycle in which Democrats took control of Congress, that split became essentially 50-50 and, at least for the moment, the pendulum appears to swing in the Democrats’ direction, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The oil and gas industry has also seen a slight shift, going from giving more than 80 percent of its dollars to Republicans in the early part of the decade to about 75 percent post-2006.

But thus far, the single greatest recipient of industry largesse this year is a Republican — ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) scooped up more than $52,000 in industry contributions.

Waxman, liberals see little industry cash

Energy and Commerce Committee leaders and panel liberals saw little in the way of industry dollars.

Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) had two contributions from PACs associated with the energy industry — a $2,500 contribution from Ohio-based utilities FirstEnergy Corp. and a $1,500 contribution from Florida Power & Light Co.

Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) received a single contribution of $5,000 from the Action Committee for Rural Electrification (ACRE) — a PAC that represents cooperative electric utilities.

That low level of industry giving is nothing new for either Waxman or Markey. Since 1989, Waxman has received $49,500 from electric utilities while Markey has received about $106,000 over that same period. That represents a paltry sum for two lawmakers who over that same period raised a combined total of almost $15 million for their war chests.

A number of other liberal lawmakers — though not all — have not received a single contribution from energy companies so far this year.

On the other end of the spectrum, environmental groups have given almost nothing to lawmakers in the form of campaign contributions, save a handful of $250 donations from the League of Conservation Voters.

But a number of environmental groups have also teamed with labor unions on multibillion advertising blitzes designed to lean on lawmakers from both parties, some aimed specifically at members of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

U.S. will ‘lead the way’ on emission curbs — Clinton

In a complete reversal from the previous administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged the United State’s interest in curbing emissions to confront global warming. The proposed leadership role demonstrates the continued will of America to lead the world even in a time of economic crisis.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on leaders of the world’s largest economies today to rein in greenhouse gas emissions and pledged that the United States will “lead the way.”

In opening remarks to the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, Clinton called climate change a “clear and present danger to our world” and told environment ministers from the world’s 17 largest economies that the Obama administration is “fully engaged in negotiations toward a global emissions treaty.”

“I assure you that the United States will work tirelessly toward a successful outcome of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations,” Clinton said.

Stimulus funds, not polluters, funding cleanup

The Superfund program, established nearly 30 years ago, was formed on the principle that those responsible for toxic pollution should pay to clean up the nation’s most contaminated industrial sites.

But the program has faced chronic underfunding since a tax that supported it expired in 1995, so the government is spending $600 million in stimulus money to clean up sites like the defunct arsenic-polluted Vineland Chemical Co. plant in South Jersey.

At hundreds of plants like the one in Vineland, either no responsible party has been found for the contamination or money from the original polluter has been exhausted, leaving taxpayers on the hook for the cleanup work.

VoteVets to red state Dems: Go green

Here’s more evidence of the new Democratic message coordination: The group VoteVets is targeting two red state Democrats, pressing them to support the Democratic version of cap and trade.

The goal on the left at the moment is to counter the notion that cap and trade has been left for dead and to get some momentum behind the bill being considered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is going to need moderate Democratic votes to get the bill out of committee.

Using Nuclear Power to Extract Oil?

After several years of speculation, the Alberta government last month released a long-awaited ‘expert’s report‘ on nuclear power and oil sands and has now embarked on a series of province-wide public consultations.

The move comes on the heels of a decision last month by Bruce Power, a private company that operates a publicly-owned nuclear station in western Ontario, to seek approval to build a $10 billion nuclear station at a site known as Whitemud, about 310 miles northwest of Edmonton.

New York-sized ice shelf collapses off Antarctica

An area of an Antarctic ice shelf almost the size of New York City has broken into icebergs this month after the collapse of an ice bridge widely blamed on global warming, a scientist said today.

“The northern ice front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has become unstable and the first icebergs have been released,” Angelika Humbert, glaciologist at the University of Muenster in Germany, said of European Space Agency satellite images of the shelf.

Humbert told Reuters about 700 sq km of ice – bigger than Singapore or Bahrain and almost the size of New York – has broken off the Wilkins this month and shattered into a mass of icebergs.

Climate change hitting entire Arctic ecosystem, says report

Levels of summer sea ice in the Arctic have drastically reduced since 2005

Extensive climate change is now affecting every form of life in the Arctic, according to a major new assessment by international polar scientists.

In the past four years, air temperatures have increased, sea ice has declined sharply, surface waters in the Arctic ocean have warmed and permafrost is in some areas rapidly thawing.

In addition, says the report released today at a Norwegian government seminar, plants and trees are growing more vigorously, snow cover is decreasing 1-2% a year and glaciers are shrinking.

Scientists from Norway, Canada, Russia and the US contributed to the Arctic monitoring and assessment programme (Amap) study, which says new factors such as “black carbon” – soot – ozone and methane may now be contributing to global and arctic warming as much as carbon dioxide.

Compiled by Max Luken and Carlin Rosengarten