EnergyBiz - September/October 2007 - (Page 49) oil and gas industry ranks 13th among industrial sectors contributing to the Richardson campaign. Among the leading Republican candidates, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani gets most of his support from legal and financial firms, as well as strong support from casinos. Power companies don’t rank among his top contributors, but Bracewell & Giuliani, the law and lobbying firm he joined in 2005, is based in Houston and has numerous electrical utility clients as well as oil and gas firms. It is a top contributor to Giuliani’s campaign. The Energy and Natural Resources sector is listed among the top five contributing sectors to the Giuliani campaign, in the Center’s tabulation. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gets support from his old firm, Bain & Co., and from his own fortune, as well as a host of other business sources, though electricity companies don’t appear in the top ranks. John McCain is not getting terrific support in general, nor has any business sector really jumped on his bandwagon in a big way. The other Republican candidates are drawing only marginal contributions at this point. As an industry, electrical utilities in the 2006 federal elections ranked 21st among 80 industry categories, according to the data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. In total contributions for the nine elections since 1990, the industry ranks 24th. The breakdown was 2-to-1 in favor of Republicans in 2006, as it has been almost to the penny in every federal election since 1996. In 1994 and the two elections preceding that, electrical utilities made 55 percent of their contributions to Democrats and 45 percent to Republicans. The Center tabulates both individual and PAC contributions of $200 or more. The only electrical utility organization in the top 100 contributors tracked by the Center from 1989 through 2006 was the National Rural Electrical Cooperative Association (NRECA), ranking 66th and listed “on the fence” politically (contributing somewhere between 40 percent and 59 percent to both parties). Among the 107 electrical utility PACs listed for the 2006 election cycle, NRECA’s was far and away the biggest, followed by Florida Power & Light, Exelon and American Electric Power. However, explains NRECA spokesman Pat Lavigne, the cooperative in principle does not contribute to presidential candidates, but only to legislative candidates. Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association take a similar line, leaving it to their individual members to support presidential candidates if they choose. In the 2000 presidential election, the electricity industry heavily favored George W. Bush over Al Gore, giving almost $7 to Bush for every $1 they gave to Gore. Bush collected more than $447,000 in PAC and individual contributions from electric utilities, compared with just $65,000 for Gore. Bush’s two-year fund-raising total exceeded the cumulative amount that any other federal candidate had received from electric utilities over the preceding 10 years. So what are the candidates actually saying in the current campaign? Obama gave his major energy address at the Detroit Economic Club last May. While the speech contained several rhetorical flourishes (the “tyranny of oil,” “oil addiction”), the candidate reiterated his support for a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He would invest “substantial revenue” from auctioning off emissions credits into the development of carbon sequestration, advanced biofuels, and energy efficiency. Given the venue, much of his focus was automobiles, and he called for higher fuel-efficiency standards and a National LowCarbon Fuel Standard, a gradual reduction in the amount of hydrocarbons permitted in gasoline. Obama backed the energy act of 2005, prompting critics to say he was motivated by his support for Illinois agribusiness, the act’s subsidies for ethanol production and his backing of the state’s coal industry. He has been severely criticized by environmentalists for his enthusiastic support for “coal-to-liquid” technology, because it produces twice the amount of greenhouse gases that oil does. “I’ll give him credit for that,” says Charlie Fritts, who heads up the AGA PAC, “for recommending a domestic source to replace a foreign source of energy.” While the AGA PAC is not likely to contribute to a presidential campaign, the association is ready to provide input on policy issues to campaign staff. One of the issues the group would like to see discussed in the campaign is the need to boost the domestic supply of energy resources by easing some of the restrictions on drilling on the outer continental shelf. “No question, it’s a political hot button,” Fritts says, “but the industry has an excellent track record of producing in the Gulf.” Even with Hurricane Katrina, there were no spills, he notes, proving that the industry can drill in an environmentally sensitive and safe manner. Presidential hopeful Sen. hillary Rodham Clinton, d-n.Y. smiles as she speaks at Rutgers University. sourCE: ap phoTo/mEL EVans Sen. Barack Obama, d-ill., looks on during a democratic rally in aurora, Colo. sourCE: ap phoTo/JaCK dEmpsEy 50 E n E rgyB i z September/October 2007
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.