Climate advocacy group again spotlights fossil fuel lobbyists in State House

The national climate advocacy group F Minus is at it again, with a new report spotlighting what it sees as the lack of oversight of fossil fuel lobbyists in the Maryland State House.

F Minus, which was set up last year by James Browning, the former director of Common Cause Maryland, has focused so far on statehouse lobbying by the fossil fuel industry around the country, calling for more transparency and accountability. The group has also attempted to expose the intrinsic contradiction of lobbyists who simultaneously represent climate organizations or clean energy interests and corporate polluters.

Browning argues that climate-conscious local governments, nonprofits and other entities that share lobbyists with fossil fuel companies can’t fully appreciate the extent to which these lobbyists are making the climate crisis worse, without better disclosure of their activities.

The newest report, called “Inherent Vice,” grades the 50 states on the transparency of their lobbyist disclosure laws — Maryland rates a C-plus, while 27 states got a failing grade. The report also gives special attention to Maryland, one of two states that received an F Minus “audit” of fossil fuel lobbying activities and official government disclosure rules.

The picture isn’t pretty.

F Minus found a pattern of fossil fuel lobbyists giving incomplete and inaccurate information in disclosures filed with the Maryland State Ethics Commission. While the report card gives the state high marks for requiring disclosure of the compensation lobbyists receive from each of their clients, and disclosure of bills on which they lobbied, it also found fossil fuel lobbyists disclosing the specific bill numbers they lobbied on just 47% of the time in 2024.

“Maryland’s fossil fuel lobbyists are stalling action on the climate crisis and making a mockery of disclosure requirements,” Browning said recently.

The F Minus audit also reveals two examples of climate bills on which Johns Hopkins University’s pro-climate testimony was contradicted by its own lobbying firm’s anti-climate testimony for the American Petroleum Institute.

Nationwide, the advocacy group’s database finds more than 1,500 state-level lobbyists for fossil fuel companies who also represent local governments, schools, businesses, nonprofits and other entities that are impacted by the climate crisis. But Browning argues that the degree to which these lobbyists’ fossil fuel advocacy is harming their non-fossil-fuel clients cannot be fully known without better disclosure of what, exactly, these lobbyists are doing in state legislatures, how much they are paid, and if the disclosures they do make are accurate.

In Maryland, lobbyists file semiannual reports with the state ethics commission, the entity that oversees the industry — in May, shortly after the completion of the three-month General Assembly session, and again in November. The ethics commission requires disclosure of bill numbers that lobbyists have worked on, but F Minus found that compliance varies from lobbyist to lobbyist and from firm to firm.

The advocacy group analyzed disclosures made by Maryland’s top fossil fuel lobbyists in May 2024, compared this to video and written records of these lobbyists’ appearances at legislative hearings on specific bills, and found these lobbyists disclosing bill numbers for their fossil fuel advocacy just 47% of the time in 2024.

On two measures that sought to dramatically limit the use of gas in new buildings, House Bill 210 and House Bill 1279, lobbyists for the American Petroleum Institute, Maryland Association of Realtors, Maryland Building Industry Association, and Maryland Multi-Housing Association testified or registered their opposition at hearings on these bills, but failed to disclose this activity to the ethics commission, F Minus found. Also failing to disclose their lobbying on one or both bills were BGE, Pepco, and the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Energy Solutions, which was established to slow electrification mandates.

The audit also found two instances of a lobbyist at Cornerstone Government Affairs, a national firm with a robust Annapolis office, testifying against climate legislation that was supported by Johns Hopkins University — a Cornerstone client.

The audit identifies at least half a dozen other Maryland lobbyists or firms representing fossil fuel interests that appear to have skirted fully reporting their activities during the General Assembly session.

F Minus argues that monthly disclosure reports should be required of lobbyists because lobbying is a year-round activity, even in states whose legislatures only meet part-time, like Maryland’s, or only meet every other year. Nineteen states require monthly reporting either year-round or when their legislatures are in session.

But the benefits of frequent disclosure cannot make up for the problems with weak disclosure, the report argues. This is the case in Illinois, for example, which does not have any of the three keys to disclosure, but requires disclosure reports twice a month. Georgia has none of the three keys and requires monthly reporting during its legislative session. This flurry of activity creates an illusion of disclosure, while failing to capture the exact nature of lobbyists’ activities, according to the report.

F Minus suggests that governors who have committed to fighting climate, change, including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), call out their state’s fossil fuel lobbyists for flouting disclosure requirements.

“Exposing the tactics of fossil fuel lobbyists can make the difference between winning or losing the climate fight,” Browning said, “and this report card shows that right now we’re choosing to lose.”