BP Spent $2 Million Lobbying On Offshore Drilling, Spill Liability, Other Regulations In First Quarter Of 2011

NEW YORK -- On the first anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that killed 11 workers, oil giant BP revealed via mandatory disclosure forms that it spent at least $2 million on federal lobbying in the first quarter of 2011 on a wide range of issues, from advocating for an end to the offshore drilling moratorium imposed by President Barack Obama in the wake of the spill to caps on its contributions to the restoration of the Gulf Coast.

BP tapped five well-connected lobbying firms -- Alpine Group; Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock; the Podesta Group; Stuntz Davis & Staffier; and the Duberstein Group -- to ply their influence on Capitol Hill and at federal agencies in the wake of the four-month-long spill, which devastated the environment and leaked more than 205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Executive-branch agencies targeted by the beleaguered oil behemoth, which faces a criminal probe by the Justice Department, included the Environmental Protection Agency and the State and Treasury departments.

In addition to the drilling moratorium and coastal restoration contributions, BP lobbied heavily regarding implementation of the presidential oil spill commission's recommendations, which included stricter oversight of offshore drilling.

BP also lobbied Congress on the Put the Gulf Back to Work Act, the legislation passed last week by the House Natural Resources Committee under the leadership of chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) which speeds up the approval process for new drilling permits. That bill prompted Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to accuse House Republicans of having "amnesia" about the oil spill.

Among other issues of interest to BP: the Restoring American Offshore Leasing Now Act, which requires Salazar to conduct certain offshore oil and gas lease sales; financial reform legislation and proposed rules; and liability protection for producing and retailing motor fuel that contains 15 percent ethanol. In addition, the oil company lobbied on several proposed EPA rules relating to greenhouse gas emissions and ambient air quality standards, and lobbied Congress on energy tax issues, corporate tax reform and the export of Caspian gas into European markets.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that BP broke its self-imposed moratorium on political donations in the wake of the spill. The oil giant gave $5,000 contributions to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), among others. On March 1, BP's political action committee also doled out $5,000 to both the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Comments

[wsmith3023]

07:52 PM on 06/01/2011

All of the oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico belongs to the Federal Government or the State within 1 1/2 mile from shore. We The People own these commodities. We The People want the money made by selling it, but We The People don't want to pay the consequences if our oil or gas is released into the environment.

[trickjames23]

02:52 PM on 04/22/2011

You mean 2 million greasing palms and buying off elected officials...

[MiddletownHal]

12:43 PM on 04/22/2011

BP can afford these expenses as they've saved millions due to their incredible safety record.

[wsmith3023]

07:54 PM on 06/01/2011

At least the polars bears and seals that our government was worried about weren't harmed.
Maybe our government should have been monitering cementing jobs, instead of counting animals and dollar bills.

[maxfax]

09:56 AM on 04/22/2011

In the right circles, $2,000,000.00 buys a lot of sway.  Appears the oil companies found the right circle.

[wsmith3023]

07:58 PM on 06/01/2011

$2,000,000.00 is a drop in the bucket. Our government made $27,000,000,000.00 selling our oil in the GOM in 2008. They only made $9,000,000,000.00 in 2009. Maybe that sharp drop in profit to our government led to an inept government getting together with an inept BP to try to make a lot of money for We The People. BP was already at strike three. Why the heck did our government allow them in the GOM? Government greed? Probably.

[wsmith3023]

07:59 PM on 06/01/2011

More good news. For every dollar profited from oil within the US, We The People pay $6 in taxes.

[avril666]

03:20 AM on 04/22/2011

Mr Hayward, who described himself as BP's "sacrificial lamb", could have sat back and enjoyed the benefits of the £1m payout and £10m pension pot awarded him on departing BP, together with the $150,000 (£91,000) he is paid to sit on the board of TNK-BP, its joint venture with Russia's third largest oil company. Instead, he is discussing a new financial enterprise with the multimillionaire Nat Rothschild that could see him rake in millions.

[jackieu0225]

09:39 PM on 04/21/2011

BP "which faces a criminal probe by the Justice Department" spent $2Million lobbying...lobbying or bribing but who's splitting hairs...it's all the same. They are just here to legally steal our own resources and sell those resources right back to us at a premium. And we let them.

[wsmith3023]

08:08 PM on 06/01/2011

Our Congress should be also face a criminal probe. Immediately after the blow out, Congress made the government agency monitoring BP completely disappear. They spent several weeks and spent much more than $2 million dollars using the opportunity to give re election speeches on TV. The only thing we found out about the blowout was that our Congress doesn't know the difference between an annulus and a hole in the ground.

[Jj Jones]

09:22 PM on 04/21/2011

These guys don't pay income taxes here so they should have no ability to lobby Congress at all. It's just that simple. The Teas should be all over this, not waisting time with the birther crap.
JJ

[wsmith3023]

08:16 PM on 06/01/2011

Even though American Oil Companies make all of their profit overseas, our government wants them to pay taxes in the US. And then our Supreme Court announced that corporations, even though they are just files in a filecabinet, are living entities.
These two actions give these corporations the Constitutional Right to lobby.
We The People shot ourselves in the foot allowing our Representatives (our employees) to do this. Now our Representatives can successfully use the old bait and switch tactic on an unsuspecting public to be re elected and to supply their cronies with loads of money. Our money.

[tster1965]

06:37 PM on 04/21/2011

I couldn't believe what I saw just 3 days after the BP oil spill. People were buying gas from BP gas stations. If Americans wanted to send a message to this big company, they should have boycotted them.

[wsmith3023]

08:18 PM on 06/01/2011

We should boycott all gas stations.
By the way. Anyone still trying to boycott Exxon to keep gasoline prices low?
ExxonMobil doesn't own any gas stations in the US.

[wsmith3023]

08:20 PM on 06/01/2011

Just a week after the BP blow out millions of Americans sold their BP stock.
They wanted the benefits, but none of the consequences of their ownership.

[kenhamlett]

03:42 PM on 04/21/2011

They can afford it. The price of a barrel of oil this afternoon is at $112+ and climbing, so they will be raising the price of gasoline at the pumps again shortly. They have had unprecedented freedom and support in getting past the bad publicity of the Gulf oil spill -- including the "oil is just disappearing on its own" declaration from the President. So, there is no reason to think that their run of good fortune will not be continuing. It is an outrageous comment on how skewed our system has become when one can go from causing -- and doing little about -- the worst environmental disaster in our history one year to reaping enormous profits the next. This "change" seems like it could also have happened under our former President. It is a shame that it is happening now.

[jesthefaxman]

03:18 PM on 04/21/2011

That's all? I wonder what they are going to sue Transocean for?

[MissingAmerica]

01:12 PM on 04/21/2011

Has anyone else noticed how the oil companies and big financial institutions are using our own money to systematically kill us off? Oh, and let's throw in our overpaid politicians, as well. The GOP are paid by us and they are trying to nail the lids to our economic coffins down really good and tight! Soon we won't be able to breathe. They don't stop to think that if we disappear, so do they. Let's say China took us over. Do they really think the Chinese government would allow them to stay in power? Just an example, but worth thinking about!

[american-dolt]

12:13 PM on 04/21/2011

Corporations feel no-shame, if CEO does, he is quickly replaced.

Dangerous Organizations.

[joyfulworld]

11:57 AM on 04/21/2011

BP should have to pay all the people whose lives they ruined until the Gulf is entirely returned to the way it was before. No matter how long that takes. Plus hefty damages. And the BP board members should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Those clowns richly deserve to be in prison!!! And it should be a warning to every CEO of every planet-destroying corporation to take care!

[dennisrs]

09:06 PM on 04/21/2011

They (BP) have. Do you remember they put up a $20 Billion fund for the affected states and the people but so far the democrat controlled commission has only doled out 3 or 4 billion. Plenty of people lost business and jobs and no help from this so called Oil disaster commission.

[joyfulworld]

12:37 PM on 04/22/2011

$20 billion is a drop in the bucket! There never should have been a cap on what BP has to pay their victims. As to that "democrat controlled commission," what are you talking about? There was a commission formed that should have regulated the oil industry, but did not. And there was a claims fund to handle the $20 billion BP is required to pay. So what are you talking about here? And please stop trying to blaim the Dems for a problem created by Big Oil in general and BP specifically.

[GV97]

11:46 AM on 04/21/2011

MONEY OUT OF POLITICS !!!

[jesthefaxman]

03:18 PM on 04/21/2011

Words out of speech!!!

[Meesterclean]

11:34 AM on 04/21/2011

Their American assets should be dissolved. People should already be prosecuted.