Big oil lobbies against the plan---that drains political capital and causes regulatory capture.
Laura Kilbury et al. ’23 [Laura Kilbury is a research associate for National Security and International Policy at American Progress. She earned a master’s degree in public policy from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University. “These Fossil Fuel Industry Tactics Are Fueling Democratic Backsliding,” Center for American Progress; https://www.americanprogress.org/article/these-fossil-fuel-industry-tactics-are-fueling-democratic-backsliding/]
Tactic 2: Manipulate democratic systems to defeat climate action and serve industry interests
With its disproportionate financial and lobbying influence, the fossil fuel industry manipulates democratic functions to undermine popular views and hamstring climate action proposals that would serve the public interest. In the United States alone, the fossil fuel industry spends tens of millions of dollars to influence policymakers to keep the system rigged for itself. So far in 2023, oil and gas companies and associations have spent almost $93 million on lobbying; and in 2022, it was more than $125 million. Between lobbying, political contributions, and advertising efforts, these interests spent 27 times as much as climate advocacy groups from 2008 to 2018 to obstruct climate action.
Such efforts hamper robust, often popular, climate proposals. Despite two-thirds of Americans supporting renewable energy growth over oil and gas expansion, fossil fuel money helped defeat strong climate initiatives in both Colorado’s and Washington’s 2018 elections. It also pushed through legislation defining methane gas as “green energy” in Ohio and recently secured $7.2 billion in incentives to build new natural gas power plants in Texas.
The fossil fuel industry’s lobbying efforts to weaken climate action and obstruct public will are clear attempts at “regulatory capture,” understood as when government agencies are dominated by the sectors they are supposed to be regulating. One example among many is the industry’s concerted effort to limit the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s climate-related financial disclosure rules.
The fossil fuel industry makes similar efforts in Europe. The European Union has been seeking to make its member states become greener, but the industry is obstructing these efforts through lobbying and funding campaigns. In 2020, for example, investigations revealed that “oil majors” such as Exxon Mobil and Shell worked behind the scenes to water down the European Green Deal before it could even be publicly announced.