Big Oil's Climate Lobby: Hundreds of Millions to Delay Action

The Oil Majors: A Lobbying Juggernaut

For decades, the fossil fuel industry has been one of Washington's most powerful lobbying forces. Our analysis of Senate lobbying disclosures reveals an industry that treats climate policy as an existential threat — and spends accordingly.

The numbers are staggering. Across energy companies, petrochemical firms, refiners, and industry trade groups, the sector has reported over $890 million in lobbying expenditures. And the spending has accelerated as climate legislation has become more serious.

The Issues: A Roadmap to Obstruction

What the energy sector lobbies on reveals a systematic effort to delay, weaken, or block climate action at every level:

• ENG (Energy/Nuclear) — Drilling permits, pipeline approvals, LNG exports, energy policy
• ENV (Environment/Superfund) — EPA regulations, Clean Air Act, emissions standards
• FUE (Fuel/Gas/Oil) — Refinery rules, fuel standards, methane regulations
• CAW (Clean Air & Water) — Clean Air Act enforcement, water discharge rules
• TAX (Taxation) — Oil depletion allowances, fossil fuel subsidies, carbon tax opposition

Notice what's missing from the industry's lobbying agenda: support for renewable energy, carbon capture mandates, or any meaningful climate action. The lobbying record tells a story of an industry that talks about transition while spending millions to prevent it.

The API: Big Oil's $12 Million Voice

The American Petroleum Institute is the oil industry's most powerful trade group and its loudest voice in Washington. With over $12 million in lobbying expenditures across 120+ filings, API has fought against virtually every major climate proposal of the past two decades.

API lobbied against the Clean Power Plan. It lobbied against methane regulations. It lobbied against the Paris Climate Agreement. And when the Inflation Reduction Act passed with its clean energy tax credits, API immediately began lobbying to limit implementation and redirect funds toward fossil fuel projects.

The Koch Network: Dark Money Meets K Street

Koch Government Affairs (formerly Koch Companies Public Sector) represents the lobbying arm of Koch Industries — the privately held conglomerate with massive interests in fossil fuels, petrochemicals, and manufacturing. With over $7.8 million in lobbying across 80+ filings, Koch is one of the most aggressive opponents of climate regulation in the dataset.

But Koch's registered lobbying is just the tip of the iceberg. The Koch network funds dozens of think tanks, advocacy groups, and political organizations that amplify anti-regulation messaging. The lobbying filings only capture a fraction of the Koch empire's total influence spending.

ExxonMobil: The Company That Knew

ExxonMobil holds a unique place in the climate lobbying story. Internal documents revealed that Exxon's own scientists accurately predicted global warming as early as the 1970s — while the company publicly funded climate denial for decades.

Today, ExxonMobil has shifted its public messaging toward acknowledging climate change, but its lobbying record tells a different story. With over $8.5 million in lobbying expenditures, Exxon continues to lobby against emissions regulations, carbon pricing, and renewable energy mandates — the very policies scientists say are needed to address the crisis Exxon's own researchers predicted.

The ROI of Obstruction

Why does the energy sector spend so aggressively on lobbying? Because the economics of delay are extraordinary. Every year that carbon pricing is blocked represents tens of billions in avoided costs for fossil fuel companies. Every weakened EPA regulation means billions more in profits from operations that would otherwise require expensive pollution controls.

The industry spends roughly $100-150 million per year on lobbying. The value of delayed climate action? Incalculable — both for the industry's bottom line and for the planet's future.

What This Means

The climate crisis is the defining challenge of our time. And the industry most responsible for causing it is spending hundreds of millions to ensure the policy response remains inadequate. That's not a conspiracy theory — it's documented in thousands of lobbying filings available for anyone to read.

The data doesn't lie. While oil companies run Super Bowl ads about clean energy, their lobbyists are on Capitol Hill fighting to preserve fossil fuel subsidies and weaken environmental regulations. The gap between the industry's PR and its lobbying record may be the most expensive form of greenwashing in history.