Greenwire has the story:

Oil and gas companies spent at least $154 million on lobbying last year, potentially besting a field of rivals battling to shape climate and energy policies and setting a new record for the industry. Influence efforts by the oil and gas sector grew at least 16 percent in 2009 from the $132 million spent in 2008, according to an early analysis of new lobbying disclosures by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The total reflects spending for the first nine months of 2009 plus 80 percent of reports filed for the past three months.

The electric utility industry, meanwhile, spent at least $134.7 million on lobbying last year. Combined, the two traditional energy sectors paid out nearly 10 times the $29 million that alternative energy companies allocated for lobbying efforts. Environmental organizations spent at least $21.3 million last year on lobbying.

Here are some additional resources on this.

This is what the oil and gas industry’s lobbying expenditures over the past 12 years looks like:

Of particular interest is the fact that the industry’s spending has nearly doubled in recent years, after remaining steady in the $50-$80 million range for the previous ten years. Pharmaceutical and health product lobbying on the other hand, while increasing steadily, has not experienced anything resembling the spikes we have seen in the oil and gas industry.

The $154 million in lobbying was handled by 776 lobbyists working on behalf of over 100 clients. You can view the full list of clients, with lobbying expenditures here.

54% of the $154 million worth of lobbying was paid for by just five corporations: ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and Marathon ($83 million).

ExxonMobil spent more on lobbying ($27,430,000) than all environmental organizations combined ($21,300,000), and nearly as much as the entire alternative energy industry ($29,000,000).

I’ve created a few charts that give some additional perspective on just how easily big oil outspends environmental organizations and alternative energy companies on lobbying.

This chart compares 2009 lobbying expenditures by five oil and gas companies to 2009 lobbying expenditures by environmental organizations and the entire alternative energy industry.

This chart compares 2009 lobbying expenditures by the oil and gas industry as a whole to 2009 lobbying expenditures by environmental organizations and the entire alternative energy industry.

Following up on today’s chart of the day, this chart is also appropriate:

Associated Press:

Videos posted online by US oil company Chevron purporting to show rampant corruption among Ecuadoran officials are actually a set-up meant to taint an ongoing trial against the energy giant, an attorney in the case alleged.

“By releasing the videos, in my opinion Chevron is trying to taint a trial process that they knew they were going to lose, with the hope that the case would be dismissed in Ecuador,” Steven Donziger, an attorney for Ecuadoran Amazon communities who are suing the oil giant told reporters.

Chevron at the end of August released several grainy videos purporting to show “a three-million-dollar bribery scheme implicating the judge presiding over the environmental lawsuit” against the US oil major.

The Ecuadorans allege that Chevron dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon.

But a report released Thursday by the Amazon Defense Coalition found that one of the individuals said to have produced the videos was a convicted felon with “a habit of breaking the law” and with longstanding ties to the oil company.

Here is Amazon Defense Council’s Report:

Oil Company logos displayed on astroturf at the American Petroleum Institute’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009. The Greenpeace protest calls attention to the U.S. oil industry’s secret plans to have oil workers attend anti U.S. climate action rallies masquerading as concerned “energy citizens” faking grassroots support in a practice known as “astroturfing.”

Out of control:

Energy sector companies that increased their lobbying expenditures the most (by dollar amount) between the second quarter of 2008 and the same time in 2009:

Organization	Q2, 2009	Q2, 2008	Difference
Chevron Corp	$6,015,000	$3,254,000	$2,761,000
ConocoPhillips	$3,269,993	$1,652,679	$1,617,314
American Electric Power	$2,865,380	$1,429,085	$1,436,295
BP	$4,030,000	$2,620,000	$1,410,000
American Wind Energy Assn	$1,833,426	$460,379	$1,373,047
American Petroleum Institute	$1,860,000	$1,020,000	$840,000
Energy Future Holdings Corp	$1,590,000	$765,980	$824,020
Arch Coal	$940,000	$310,000	$630,000
Edison Electric Institute	$2,600,000	$1,973,371	$626,629
Devon Energy	$650,000	$200,000	$450,000

Yahoo:

Exxon Mobil Corp. unseated Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in the 2009 Fortune 500 list, shrugging off the oil price bubble and weathering what the magazine called the worst year ever for the country’s largest publicly traded companies.

Fortune’s closely watched list, released Sunday, ranked companies by their revenue in 2008. Irving, Texas-based Exxon took in $442.85 billion in revenue last year, up almost 19 percent from 2007. The company also raked in the biggest annual profit, earning $45.2 billion.

Exxon Mobile was not alone at the top:

Energy companies continued to dominate many of the top positions, as last summer’s skyrocketing oil and gas prices more than compensated for their plunge later that fall. Chevron Corp. held on to third place with $263.16 billion in revenue, up 25 percent. ConocoPhillips climbed one place to fourth, with $230.76 billion in revenue.

Perhaps it is time for the administration to consider a windfall profits tax again?