Ask HN: Why fossil fuel untouchable in Washington, but tech is the whipping boy? - andrewstuart
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dv_dt
Look at the lobbying totals by sector:
[https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?indexType=i](https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?indexType=i)

"Tech" you're thinking about about is tiny subset of the "Electronics Mfg &
Equipment" sector. While it spends more than "Oil & Gas", I'd say that Oil &
Gas is much more focused on certain issues (e.g. no or limited carbon regs),
while the EME category has a much wider and more fragmented set of concerns
and lobbying. If you click into the number of clients, this is reflected in
242 for EME vs 178 Oil and Gas. Also, notice Koch industries is #1 in that Oil
category, and they have an incredibly famous, well established, and effective
network for both political lobbying, judicial packing, academic think tanks,
as well as organizations for manufacturing of consent. The spending for which
is likely vastly larger than what is required to report as lobbying.

