From the Center's Executive Director |  Henry In his address to a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama pledged nothing less than a transformation in the way America uses energy in order to “save our planet from the ravages of climate change” and reinvigorate a troubled economy. But what challenges will he and Congress face as they prepare to debate climate and energy policy in the months ahead? The Center for Public Integrity brings you the answers in The Climate Change Lobby, our newly-released investigative series on the explosion of companies and special interests groups registered to lobby on climate change. And just last week, we released the findings of our four month investigation into unregulated and toxic coal ash and the dangers it poses to citizens and the environment. There’s so much to report so make sure you check back on our website often to stay up-to-date through our PaperTrail blog and our newest blog feature, The Daily Watchdog, on the latest investigations by the Center. As always, thanks for all you do.  Bill Buzenberg
Executive Director You Spoke, We Listened Thanks so much for responding to our survey last month! More than 800 of you took the time to respond and your comments are invaluable as we strive to make our work more effective for you and make your involvement with us as valuable as possible. Thank you! Now we want to put your comments to work. You told us you’d be more likely to get involved in our work by donating, sharing our work with your friends and family, or sending a letter to the editor if we release more reports that interest you. So tell us - what type of investigative reports interest you most? Click here to take our quick one-question survey! | Top Investigation |  The Climate Change Lobby The number of lobbyists seeking to influence federal policy on climate change has grown more than 300 percent in five years, with a slew of new interests from Main Street to Wall Street adding to the challenge of addressing global warming, according to a new Center for Public Integrity report, The Climate Change Lobby. The report provides a first-of-its-kind look at the universe of special interests shaping debate in the United States and how it has sharply expanded between 2003 — when Congress previously voted on climate change — and 2008. Among the report’s findings: - More than 770 companies and organizations hired some 2,340 lobbyists to work on climate change and spent at least $90 million lobbying in 2008. The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity — a group of 48 companies — topped the list of those solely focused on the issue, spending $9.95 million.
- In 2003, 70 percent of the interests weighing in on climate were energy companies and manufacturers. But by 2008, those sectors made up only 45 percent of the total, despite their strong growth, because so many new interests had joined in the fray.
- Finance, insurance and investment firms, with virtually no presence in the climate debate on Capitol Hill in 2003, last year had as many lobbyists as alternative energy firms — about 130. Their interest is in shaping the rules of a market-based “cap-and-trade” system.
The Climate Change Lobby features a fully searchable database of climate lobbyists, using disclosure reports filed with the U.S. Senate’s Office of Public Records, as well as brief profiles of some of the most prominent lobbyists. Learn more about this latest project and share it with others. | | |  | | | Latest from the Center |  The dangers of coal ash had largely been hidden from view until December, when a dam holding a billion gallons of coal ash collapsed in Eastern Tennessee. But what happened in the Volunteer State is hardly representative of the alarming, widespread threat that coal ash presents to public health, according to the Center’s four-month investigation of the issue. Indeed, coal ash stored in hundreds of ponds, landfills and old mines has quietly, insidiously caused problems for decades, seeping into groundwater, harming ecology and damaging numerous neighborhoods in states as far-flung as Maryland, New Mexico, Indiana, Virginia and Montana.
Check out our latest project and see where coal-fired power plants and the coal ash they produce are located — they may be as close as your own community.  Diana Johns had just moved into her four-bedroom, 6,500-square-foot Leesburg, Virginia, home in 2002 and was thrilled with its elegant pillars, golf-course views, and expansive, sunny rooms. But the bleating alarm tied to the home’s “nonconventional” septic system signaled that beneath the surface, something was terribly wrong.
Read the Center for Public Integrity's latest report in our Land Use Accountability Project for an examination of the pros and cons of alternative septic system use in rural housing developments. | |  | | | |
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