Companies Start to Lift Veil on Political Spending

But oil companies are not alone among energy providers in mounting lobbying blitzes directed at the public. All forms of energy are profiting from the run-up in oil prices, and the lobbies for ethanol, a grain-alcohol additive, and wind power are taking a portion of their newfound prosperity and pouring it into self-promotion -- just like Big Oil.

The wind-power industry has increased its advertising budget several-fold over the past year and a half. It has purchased commercials on television, on radio and in print and has even placed banners in Washington's Metro system.

"We're looking to elevate an awareness of how the wind-power industry has grown and matured," said Gregory S. Wetstone, senior director of government affairs for the American Wind Energy Association. "We're also working hard to elevate the urgency of getting Congress to extend the one major piece of federal policy support we have: a tax credit that expires at the end of this year."

The Renewable Fuels Association, which lobbies for ethanol producers, also is expanding its PR and advertising budget and will concentrate its efforts inside the Beltway. It wants to defend its industry against assertions that the use of corn in ethanol is a major factor in rising food costs.

"That's a hot issue right now," said the association's president, Robert Dinneen. "We have to make sure our small part of the story is told."

It's Easy Being Green

Record gasoline prices have done more than boost advertising budgets for worried energy lobbies. They also have turned long-held positions of significant lobbying groups upside down -- and decidedly pro-environmental.

The American Trucking Associations last week did a 180 (or pretty close to that) on two key issues. In news releases notable for their use of the color green, the truck company lobby said it would accept a fuel tax increase -- once its most hated policy proposal -- if the extra revenue went toward reducing highway congestion. It also suggested tougher fuel economy standards for trucks, another shocker for the trucking industry.

Association President Bill Grav es tacitly acknowledged that the world as we know it has changed. In a video news release on the association's new tree-lined Web site, http://www.trucksdeliver.org, he said his goal is "a cleaner and greener industry." That's right, everything is green these days. Even trucks.

That tree, by the way -- at least as pictured on the Web site -- has leaves (green, of course) and branches. But its roots look like a roadway, complete with double no-passing stripes down the middle.

Hire of the Week

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce under Thomas J. Donohue has grown rapidly in recent years, sticking its nose into almost every domestic issue that corporations care about -- from the proliferation of lawsuits to the sorry state of highways and bridges.

Last week it opened a new front: international terrorism. The Chamber named Frances F. Townsend, 46, the former assistant to President Bush for homeland security and counterterrorism, as a senior adviser and outside consultant.

Townsend joins a rarified group of Chamber consultants. They include Andrew H. Card Jr., Bush's former chief of staff; Thomas F. "Mack" McLarty III, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton; former congressman Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio); Al From, chief executive of the Democratic Leadership Council; Jim Nicholson, former chairman of the Republican National Committee; and Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, a former Clinton national security adviser.

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