User:TCRChemistry/Fossil fuels lobby

Canada
Canada’s Lobbyist Act does not require companies to disclose how much money they spend on lobbying the Canadian government, and does not require companies to register lobbyists that interact with government officials who hold a title less than assistant deputy minister.

From 2011 to 2018, fossil fuel industry lobbyists recorded 11,452 lobbying contacts with government officials. This is significantly higher than other industries and averages out to six lobbying contacts per day. Fossil fuel lobbyists contacted government officials five times more than non-government environmental organizations.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) is an advocacy group for energy companies in Canada. CAPP states that their vision is to “enhance Canada’s prosperity by enabling responsible growth of Canada’s upstream oil and natural gas industry.” A large portion of CAPP’s membership is made up of oil refineries which harvest oil from the oil sands of Alberta. CAPP estimates that the oil sands industry will pay about $8 billion in taxes over the next six years. The President of CAPP is Tim McMillan, who previously served as the Minister of Trade and Minister of Rural and Remote Health for the province of Saskatchewan.

In July 2020, French energy company Total SA withdrew its membership from the Canadian association of petroleum producers, which is a lobbying group that represents the oil and natural gas producers in Canada. They withdrew after writing off US $7 billion dollars of oil sands assets in Alberta because of the high production costs. Total stated they left CAPP because of a “misalignment between the organization’s public positions and those expressed in Total’s climate ambition statement announced in May, according to jwnenergy.com.

Government Influence in Canada
In 2012 alone, 27 different energy companies and eight industry associations engaged in lobbying the Canadian parliament in Ottawa. Embridge and TransCanada, which are the two largest pipeline companies in Canada, met with cabinet ministers 52 times between 2011 and 2012. Since 2008, the Canadian Energy Pipelines Association (CEPA) “met with public office holdeers 367 percent more times than the two major Canadian automotive industry associations.”

Included in the list of lobbyists for Big Oil in Canada are former government employees. Over the last 10 years this list has included Brenda Kenny, who served 10 years with the National Energy Board, Paul Cheliak, a former economist for Natural Resources Canada, and Bruce Carson, a convicted thief who served as the top policy analyst under prime minister Stephen Harper.

From 2000 to 2018, oil production in Canada increased by 80%, but the royalties paid by the sector decreased by 63%. In addition, the taxes paid by the oil companies was cut in half.

Canadian Oil Industry's Influence Abroad
Canada’s oil lobbyists spend money outside of Canada to further international agreements, as well. In 2015, lobbyists for TransCanada, the owner of the Keystone XL pipeline project, spent $500,000 in a single legislative session lobbying Nebraska state senators. While U.S law forbids foreign companies and individuals from making political contributions, TransCanada officially made the contributions through its U.S subsidiary.

OPEC Influence in European Union Policy
The five biggest oil and gas companies spent at least 251 million euros lobbying the European union over climate policies since 2010. These lobbyists represent a total of 200 organizations. Some of these companies include BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total. There have been 327 high-level meetings between the EU and Big Oil and Gas since 2014, this averages to more than one meeting a week. In the EU, there are 200 lobbyists working on behalf of the top 5 oil and gas companies. The European Green Deal was the #1 most lobbied topic at the European Union in the first 100 days of the European Green Deal being implemented on December 11th, 2019, accounting for 1/5 of all high-level lobby meetings.

Oil Industry Lobbying in the United Kingdom
Shell gas company began lobbying the United Kingdom government as early as 2011 to undermine European renewable energy targets, according to The Guardian. They had several meetings with European commission president Jose ManuelBarroso, Shell successfully lobbied Barroso and his predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker, to move away from the plan which originally had binding, carbon-cutting goals for each individual member state. Shell argued instead for gas expansion in Europe, because they believed it would save 500 billion euros in a transition to a low carbon energy system.