Compliance » Times Exposé: State AGs In Bed With Energy Industry

Times Exposé: State AGs In Bed With Energy Industry

December 9, 2014

steel pipes in crude oil factory

Major energy companies are financing state attorney general campaigns, teaming up with states AGs to mount lawsuits targeting federal regulations and influencing – and in some cases writing – state laws that would make it easier for the state to resist or thwart federal regulation, according to an investigative report in the New York Times. “Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns, including at least $16 million this year,” the article says. Parties on both sides of the alliance defend the relationship. When the federal government “oversteps its legal authority and takes actions that hurt our businesses and residents,” says Pam Bondi, attorney general of Florida, “it’s entirely appropriate for us to partner with the adversely affected private entities in fighting back.” The full court press by the energy industry comes in the face of mounting speculation that its economic health is threatened by climate change and the adaptations that will be seen as necessary to mitigate it. The possibility was highlighted in a Washington Post article about how reserves now booked as a major component of company value could become “stranded assets.” The Post quotes the old industry nemesis and whipping boy, former vice president Al Gore, who likens today’s fossil fuels to the subprime mortgages that triggered the global credit crisis. Their value, he says, is based on an assumption “every bit as absurd,” the assumption that all known oil, gas and coal reserves will be consumed.

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