The Policy Greenhouse

What is Lobbying?

Simply put, a lobbyist is someone who receives compensation for lobbying (advocating for) some type of policy change or implementation. Due to financial disclosure regulations that senators and members of congress have to follow, lobbyists have to be registered and declared to ensure transparency. On a surface level, it is easy to see why people may have issues with lobbying as a practice in general. It may seem like a way to give large corporations a way to influence politics and sort of bend the rules to their interest, but the truth is that lobbying plays an important role in our government. In the US’s democratic system (that is supposed to be geared towards listening to the interests of citizens first), it would be very easy to fall behind the ever changing priorities of citizens, as there would be equal incentive to pursue all the different interests that citizens have expressed to their representatives. Through helping people band together and get the attention of legislators (through incentives), citizens are more easily able to express their concern when it comes to issues that they deem more pressing than anything else (such as gun control and climate change). The US’s legislative bodies (the senate and congress) go through over 10,000 bills yearly, so outside of simply setting an agenda, lobbyists also help to present data on the key issues they help bring to the attention of congress, ensuring that policymakers are able to make informed decisions they would not have otherwise.

Lobbying and Environmental Legislation

While lobbying is an integral part of the USA’s democracy, there have been instances where the institution of lobbying has been used as a cover for corruption. A recent and flagrant example of this would be the former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. During the Trump administration, one of the most contested issues was the question of whether or not climate change was such an imminent threat that immediate and drastic action had to be taken. Pruitt strongly believed that climate change was not the looming threat that the Obama administration thought it was, stating that the fossil fuel emission reduction measures that the Obama administration had put into place were regulatory overreach. The issue that many democratic representatives took with Pruitts dedication to reducing any clean energy measures that were put into place was the fact that it seemed that his advocacy for less energy regulation seemed to be financially motivated. Here is where the line is drawn between lobbying and corruption. Pruitt was appointed as an EPA administrator, and so he had the power to roll back the Clean Power Plan (a measure put into place by the Obama administration meant to reduce fossil fuel emissions and encourage renewable energy) through his rulemaking powers as an administrator. Since he was first appointed to the position, it was apparent that he was not open at all to even considering implementing the plan as it was originally intended. This is where suspicion arose as to why he was doing this, and upon slight inspection, a sort of paper trail was revealed. 13% of Pruitt’s campaign funds came from fossil fuel companies such as Koch industries, and this has been a true fact for multiple elections. Pruitt’s actions as an EPA administrator who tried to not only roll back the CPP but also further expand offshore oil drilling was undoubtedly motivated by money, and this is corruption not lobbying because Pruitt was able to independently make policy changes rather than just bring something to the attention of congress. So as a whole, it would be inaccurate to call him a lobbyist at all.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/climate/scott-pruitt-epa-trump.html, https://www.desmog.com/2017/01/13/mapping-epa-nominee-scott-pruitt-many-fossil-fuel-ties/, https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/senators-call-for-scott-pruitt-to-recuse-himself-from-all-clean-power-plan-related-rulemaking-, https://www.ncsl.org/ethics/how-states-define-lobbying-and-lobbyist, https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/043015/why-lobbying-legal-and-important-us.asp#:~:text=Without%20it%2C%20governments%20would%20struggle,to%20gain%20power%20in%20numbers.