Agents of Climate Change

Global warming has been good to K Street. Very good.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Compiled by Rachel Morris from data from the Center for Public Integrity.

For a long time, the climate change debate in Washington took place along predictable lines: industry on one side, environmentalists on the other. But now, with the prospect of actual legislation passing Congress, and the attendant opportunities for political and financial gain, the competition has erupted into a giant free-for-all. Since 2003, the climate lobby has grown by more than 400 percent, to a total of 2,810 lobbyists—5 to every lawmaker.

The largest players are still formidable: The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a collection of power companies and mining, rail, and manufacturing interests, spent $9.95 million lobbying Congress and the White House last year, more than any other group devoted solely to climate change. But there are now also 138 lobbyists representing alternative energy technologies. Environmental and health lobbyists numbered fewer than 50 six years ago; there are now 176. (Still, the alternative energy and environmental lobbyists put together are outnumbered more than 7-to-1 by those for major industries.)

Perhaps the most telling shift in the debate is the complex position of big business, once a reliable foe of carbon restrictions. This year, the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers opposed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, but tech companies like Google (which is interested in smart-grid technology) and Sun Microsystems (which is developing more energy-efficient servers) support it. Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy, a coalition that includes eBay, Symantec, Nike, and Starbucks, is actually lobbying for greater emissions cuts. By contrast, the US Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of corporations such as General Motors, Duke Energy, ConocoPhillips, and Dow Chemical as well as environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, lobbied for and won a massive giveaway of emissions credits that President Obama had wanted polluters to pay for. Another new player is the finance industry, which had virtually no lobbyists on global warming in 2003. This year, banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, as well as insurance companies and private equity firms, have 159 representatives working on the issue. The companies are eager to jump into the carbon market that a cap-and-trade system would create, which by one regulator’s estimate could be worth $2 trillion. Wall Street wants this market to be loosely regulated and open to speculators, and it wants it to include over-the-counter derivatives—the unregulated instruments that caused insurance giant AIG to implode.

And the list goes on. Because energy is so central to the economy, everyone has a stake in the climate fight—from the massive transportation and agriculture (see “Betting the Farm“) lobbies down to churches and local governments. No wonder the bill ballooned from 648 pages to more than 1,400 by the time it completed its journey through the House.

Up Arrow

The number of lobbyists working the Hill on climate change has increased more than
400%


2003: 525 | 2009: 2,810

Lobbyists in Congress The Numbers Game

Source: Center for Public Integrity

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate