Earth Equity News

'Green' Lobbying Money Gets Into the Game as Well. By Christa Marshall, ClimateWire, July 30, 2009. "Major global-warming legislation that squeaked past the finish line in the House last month attracted millions of dollars in new lobbying money. The fresh cash came from a combination of new groups and existing companies ramping up their payments to hired advocates in the second quarter of 2009. Entities hiring climate lobbyists for the first time shelled out more than $1.5 million overall from April to June and included a new natural-gas coalition and an arm of former Vice President Al Gore's nonprofit empire... One of the biggest sources of new climate money in the quarter came from the Blue Green Alliance, a coalition launched by the Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers to promote 'green' jobs. The 3-year-old organization recently changed its tax status to allow for direct lobbying and earmarked $720,000 to do so, according to official documents filed with the U.S Senate. Simultaneously, it blasted the airwaves with advertisements praising the climate bill as a green-jobs machine. The six-figure amount allowed the alliance to get 'input into the bill,' according to Executive Director Dave Foster. Several items pushed by the group made it into the legislation late in the process, including an amendment added by two Ohio congressmen. That measure, from Reps. Zack Space (D-Ohio) and John Boccieri (D-Ohio), establishes a $30 billion revolving fund for small companies to retool their operations for clean-energy products."