The Foundry

Posts Tagged ‘lobbyists’

• Climate and Rent-Seeking

  Posted February 11th, 2010 at 12:00pm in Energy and Environment with 3 comments

  Data show 2009 was a record year for lobbying on energy issues.  1747 clients (firms and groups) hired lobbyists to work in the area of energy and nuclear power. This is a stunning 93 percent increase from 2006. This increase may be stunning, but it isn’t surprising.  With literally trillions of dollars put into play by [...] More

• Not Everyone Won the Cap and Trade Lobbying Battle

  Posted September 30th, 2009 at 3:10pm in Energy and Environment with 4 comments

  The cap and trade bill introduced by Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Edward Markey (D-MA) and passed in the is 1,427 pages and includes much more than a cap and trade system to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. We’ve been detailing these economically harmful provisions in our cap and trade calamities, but Kathleen [...] More

• Today’s Calamity: Cap and Trade is a Lobbyist’s Dream Come True

  Posted August 27th, 2009 at 2:13pm in Energy and Environment with 4 comments

  Under the Waxman-Markey cap and trade program, businesses that emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases must obtain allowance permits from the federal government for every ton of carbon emissions they produce. The government issues fewer allowance permits in each subsequent year to decrease overall emissions, so the permit price rises as the reduction in [...] More

• Why are Businesses Helping to Shape a Cap and Trade Bill That will Inevitably Hurt Them?

  Posted June 26th, 2009 at 2:50pm in Energy and Environment with 9 comments

  Someone please answer that question. Let’s start with this: a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds that food and energy demand will outpace production to meet those needs over the next several years. The need for greater energy and food production and the jobs that could be created from seeking to meet that need is [...] More

• GM To Keep Lobbyists: Government to Influence Itself

  Posted June 3rd, 2009 at 1:41pm in Enterprise and Free Markets with 11 comments

  As a candidate, Barack Obama repeatedly pledged that no lobbyist would work in his White House. But does that policy apply to his auto companies? It’s a timely question, as General Motors, soon to be majority-owned by the U.S. government, announced this week that it planned to retain its in-house lobbying staff (although it is [...] More

• Too Many Lobbyist Hands in the Cap and Trade Cookie Jar

  Posted May 20th, 2009 at 2:40pm in Energy and Environment with 3 comments

  Warning from Dr. Enno Harders, a lead official from German Emissions Trading Authority, who experienced troubled initiating a German cap and trade system: Early cap and trade [proposals] receive enormous lobby.” Businesses rightfully have an interest in ensuring that they protect their bottom lines. Many of them have calculated that some sort of carbon capping is inevitable [...] More

• Obama’s Empty Ethics Promises

  Posted March 19th, 2009 at 9:21am in Rule of Law with 5 comments

  As a candidate, President Barack Obama promised to “Shine the Light on Washington Lobbying” by creating “a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format.” That database will be completed any day, we’re sure, but President Obama has definitely already “shined a light” on [...] More

• Howard Dean No Longer Eligible to Work for Administration

  Posted March 10th, 2009 at 10:52am in Ongoing Priorities with 3 comments

  The Washington Post reports: Speaking of doctors, former Democratic National Committee chairman and six-term Vermont governor Howard Dean is the latest star to join the government affairs practice of law and lobbying mega-firm McKenna Long & Aldridge. He’s not only a physician but also a “thought leader” on politics and policy, a man whose “network of [...] More

• Big Government = Big Lobbying Industry

  Posted August 18th, 2008 at 3:42pm in Ongoing Priorities with 0 comments

  George Mason University Economics chair Donald Boudreaux blogs at Cafe Hayek: In his new book, [Thomas] Frank complains that during this time of alleged free-market ascendancy, the lobbying industry in Washington has blossomed and is inflicting great harm on Americans. I agree that the lobbying industry on the Potomac swamp continues to grow and that its consequences [...] More