Are conservation organizations effective in influencing legislation? How do the expenditures of the environmental non-profits compare to the money allocated for and lobbying efforts undertaken by pro-business organizations?

This newsletter will explore the oft-repeated charge that the combined efforts of the major environmental organizations, including World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense, Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy and others are a powerful and influential force in shaping legislation.

The facts do not support these claims.

Consider one year, 2009, and the proposal to limit greenhouse gases that the overwhelming majority of scientists claim is the leading cause of global warming. The major environmental groups, on their own and under the banner of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership spent $22.4 million to urge this legislation. But according to the Center for Responsive Politics the oil and gas industry spent over $175 million, or 8 times more to kill the bill.

Another example is the battle in New York state over legislation to authorize drilling for natural gas by hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’. In this process water and chemicals are pumped underground to force up the gas, but according to many environmental groups there are significant risks of air and water pollution. An analysis of the fight in the New York legislature showed that groups which supported immediate drilling incurred 4 times the lobbying expenses of those organizations that proposed a moratorium until additional study could be undertaken.

Possibly the most egregious recent instance of this disparity is the lobbying done for and against the Keystone XL pipeline. In the first 3 quarters of 2011 oil and gas companies and their allies spent a total of $59.8 million pressing for the pipeline’s approval. This includes favoring the passage of H.R. 1938, the “North American-Made Energy Security Act”, a bill requiring the Obama administration to accelerate consideration of the pipeline.

In contrast conservation groups spent just under $1 million. No wonder that this project was eventually approved.

In addition to all of this, the U.S. Supreme Court in the famous Citizens United case has essentially removed almost all limitations of expenditures by outside groups on elections. An unsurprising outcome is that from 2008 to 2010 30 Fortune 500 companies spent more on lobbying than they paid in federal income taxes.

Do environmental organizations lobby? Yes, many do but their combined influence is minuscule relative to the power of the corporations whose policies they oppose.