It’s no surprise that oil companies, labor unions, environmental groups and an association of pipe manufacturers would want to lobby Congress about the Keystone XL pipeline.
But Quakers? The American Jewish Committee? The makers of John Deere tractors?
Yet those groups were among 52 companies, trade associations and other organizations that had lobbyists working the Hill last year on issues that touched at least glancingly on the proposed Alberta-to-Texas oil pipeline, according to Senate lobbying disclosure records.
One not-so-apparent interested party — the state of Indiana — drew scrutiny Thursday from House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who questioned why the state paid $50,500 during the fourth quarter of 2011 to a lobbyist who included Keystone among the issues she worked on.
“This seems unusual, as the state does not have an obvious interest in seeing the Keystone XL project constructed,” Waxman wrote in a letter to Alexandria-based lobbyist Deborah Hohlt, the state’s federal representative.
“The proposed route for the Keystone XL pipeline does not pass through the state of Indiana, nor does it come close to the state’s borders,” Waxman added, writing that “Indiana facilities would not have access to the pipeline, nor would it appear that Indiana would particularly benefit from any economic activity associated with the construction of the pipeline.”
Hohlt had no answers when POLITICO contacted her Thursday, saying she still hadn’t seen Waxman’s letter. “You’re kind of catching me off-guard,” she said.
But Jane Jankowski, the press secretary for Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, said Hohlt simply listed in her disclosure report “any topic she’s spoken about on behalf of the state.”
“Gov. Daniels has talked about the need for the Keystone pipeline and issued a statement about it, which she passed on to our delegation, so she included it on her report,” Jankowski wrote.
It’s no surprise that oil companies, labor unions, environmental groups and an association of pipe manufacturers would want to lobby Congress about the Keystone XL pipeline.
But Quakers? The American Jewish Committee? The makers of John Deere tractors?
Yet those groups were among 52 companies, trade associations and other organizations that had lobbyists working the Hill last year on issues that touched at least glancingly on the proposed Alberta-to-Texas oil pipeline, according to Senate lobbying disclosure records.
One not-so-apparent interested party — the state of Indiana — drew scrutiny Thursday from House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who questioned why the state paid $50,500 during the fourth quarter of 2011 to a lobbyist who included Keystone among the issues she worked on.
“This seems unusual, as the state does not have an obvious interest in seeing the Keystone XL project constructed,” Waxman wrote in a letter to Alexandria-based lobbyist Deborah Hohlt, the state’s federal representative.
“The proposed route for the Keystone XL pipeline does not pass through the state of Indiana, nor does it come close to the state’s borders,” Waxman added, writing that “Indiana facilities would not have access to the pipeline, nor would it appear that Indiana would particularly benefit from any economic activity associated with the construction of the pipeline.”
Hohlt had no answers when POLITICO contacted her Thursday, saying she still hadn’t seen Waxman’s letter. “You’re kind of catching me off-guard,” she said.
But Jane Jankowski, the press secretary for Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, said Hohlt simply listed in her disclosure report “any topic she’s spoken about on behalf of the state.”
“Gov. Daniels has talked about the need for the Keystone pipeline and issued a statement about it, which she passed on to our delegation, so she included it on her report,” Jankowski wrote.
It’s no surprise that oil companies, labor unions, environmental groups and an association of pipe manufacturers would want to lobby Congress about the Keystone XL pipeline.
But Quakers? The American Jewish Committee? The makers of John Deere tractors?
Yet those groups were among 52 companies, trade associations and other organizations that had lobbyists working the Hill last year on issues that touched at least glancingly on the proposed Alberta-to-Texas oil pipeline, according to Senate lobbying disclosure records.
One not-so-apparent interested party — the state of Indiana — drew scrutiny Thursday from House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who questioned why the state paid $50,500 during the fourth quarter of 2011 to a lobbyist who included Keystone among the issues she worked on.
“This seems unusual, as the state does not have an obvious interest in seeing the Keystone XL project constructed,” Waxman wrote in a letter to Alexandria-based lobbyist Deborah Hohlt, the state’s federal representative.
“The proposed route for the Keystone XL pipeline does not pass through the state of Indiana, nor does it come close to the state’s borders,” Waxman added, writing that “Indiana facilities would not have access to the pipeline, nor would it appear that Indiana would particularly benefit from any economic activity associated with the construction of the pipeline.”
Hohlt had no answers when POLITICO contacted her Thursday, saying she still hadn’t seen Waxman’s letter. “You’re kind of catching me off-guard,” she said.
But Jane Jankowski, the press secretary for Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, said Hohlt simply listed in her disclosure report “any topic she’s spoken about on behalf of the state.”
“Gov. Daniels has talked about the need for the Keystone pipeline and issued a statement about it, which she passed on to our delegation, so she included it on her report,” Jankowski wrote.
Holt also lobbied on a range of other energy, health, agriculture, defense, environmental and labor matters, according to her fourth quarter disclosure filing.
Hohlt was one of two Beltway lobbyists mentioned last week in a blog post on ThinkProgress Green questioning Indiana’s involvement in the Keystone issue. The second lobbyist, Griffin Foster, of Arlington, Va., reported receiving $15,500 in the fourth quarter for representing Daniels’s office, with Keystone being one of several issues he dealt with.
Most groups that reported lobbying on Keystone had obvious stakes in the issue. Among them: oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Shell, Tesoro and Marathon, environmental groups such as the National Wildlife Federation and the League of Conservation Voters, labor unions whose members could get jobs from the project, and trade groups such as the American Concrete Pressure Pipe Association.
But other, less traditional organizations say they also have reason to get involved in Keystone.
For example, the American Jewish Committee — which reported spending $30,000 on lobbying in the fourth quarter — included Keystone XL as one of many issues it dealt with, along with support for “decreased dependence on imported oil,” funding for clean energy technology and the T. Boone Pickens-backed NAT GAS Act.
The committee also issued a statement in December urging Obama to approve the pipeline “as a vital step for strengthening energy security, particularly crucial following recent threats by Iran to block a major oil supply channel.” On the other hand, the group said the pipeline needs to be “environmentally sound.”
Meanwhile, a Quaker lobbying group, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, has called the pipeline “an immense investment in dangerously dirty technology and backward thinking.”
If Keystone XL is built, “we will assume all of the environmental risks, and in all likelihood all of that oil will be shipped to Asia,” said Bergin Parks, a program assistant at the Friends Committee, in an interview Thursday. He said the Keystone issue has also allowed the group to highlight its broader interest in promoting alternatives to fossil fuels.
The fourth quarter lobbying report from Parks’s group discloses $427,181 worth of spending on issues that included Keystone as well as defense and homeland security spending, a proposed balanced budget amendment, gun rights, immigration, EPA regulations, ethanol subsidies and a renewable electricity standard.
Deere & Co. also include Keystone among numerous energy, transportation, agriculture and other issues in its $420,000 fourth quarter lobbying report. Last year, the company wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “on behalf of John Deere and our customers engaged in the construction of pipelines throughout the United States,” urging her to approve the project.
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:29 p.m. on February 2, 2012.
It’s no surprise that oil companies, labor unions, environmental groups and an association of pipe manufacturers would want to lobby Congress about the Keystone XL pipeline.
But Quakers? The American Jewish Committee? The makers of John Deere tractors?
Yet those groups were among 52 companies, trade associations and other organizations that had lobbyists working the Hill last year on issues that touched at least glancingly on the proposed Alberta-to-Texas oil pipeline, according to Senate lobbying disclosure records.
One not-so-apparent interested party — the state of Indiana — drew scrutiny Thursday from House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who questioned why the state paid $50,500 during the fourth quarter of 2011 to a lobbyist who included Keystone among the issues she worked on.
“This seems unusual, as the state does not have an obvious interest in seeing the Keystone XL project constructed,” Waxman wrote in a letter to Alexandria-based lobbyist Deborah Hohlt, the state’s federal representative.
“The proposed route for the Keystone XL pipeline does not pass through the state of Indiana, nor does it come close to the state’s borders,” Waxman added, writing that “Indiana facilities would not have access to the pipeline, nor would it appear that Indiana would particularly benefit from any economic activity associated with the construction of the pipeline.”
Hohlt had no answers when POLITICO contacted her Thursday, saying she still hadn’t seen Waxman’s letter. “You’re kind of catching me off-guard,” she said.
But Jane Jankowski, the press secretary for Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, said Hohlt simply listed in her disclosure report “any topic she’s spoken about on behalf of the state.”
“Gov. Daniels has talked about the need for the Keystone pipeline and issued a statement about it, which she passed on to our delegation, so she included it on her report,” Jankowski wrote.
