The two-year cycle leading up to 2014 mid-term elections in the United States delivered the best Congress money could buy, with the energy industry spending $721 million on campaigns, TV ads, and lobbying, the Center for American Progress reported late last year.
“The industry as a whole gave $84 million to candidates, political parties and Political Action Committees (PACs), spent $163 million on television ads, and paid nearly $500 million to Washington lobbyists in the two years leading up the elections,” Climate Progress reports.
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Center for Responsive Politics data for the same period show environmental groups spending $43 million on lobbying and $11 million on candidates and political action committees.
“Even though the environmental movement’s money still lagged behind the fossil fuel industry’s this year, it came closer to matching the energy industry’s donations than ever before,” Atkin writes. “In 2014 alone, the Center for Responsive Politics put environmental political spending at around $83 million, and fossil fuel spending at around $100 million.”
