Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Following the money: trade associations, political activity and climate change

  • Published:
Climatic Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The political activities of industries associated with the production and consumption of fossil fuels have thwarted state efforts to advance climate policy. Yet research on the role of trade associations that firms use to coordinate their activities remains sparse. Studies of business political activity are generally focussed on the firm level with trade associations typically considered only as part of wider advocacy coalitions. Scholars are still to examine the full range of political activities of trade associations. Using an original dataset built from trade associations’ IRS filings, we find that trade associations engaged on climate change spent $3.4 billion in 10 years on political activities, with the largest expenditure on advertising and promotion, followed by lobbying, grants and political contributions. Our data challenges the prevailing assumptions about the primary political activities of business actors. To explain the variation in spending, we present the findings from a regression analysis and semi-structured interviews. We argue that scholars have for too long failed to account for the political activities of trade associations, which are also one of the most important opponents of climate policies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The quantitative data files underlying this article will be made publicly available at publication by request to Dr. Robert Brulle.

References

  • Aldrich H (2018) Trade associations matter as units of selection, as actors within comparative and historical institutional frameworks, and as potential impediments to societal wide collective action. J Manag Inq 27:21–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aldrich H, Staber UH (1998) Organizing business interests: patterns of trade association foundings, transformations, and deaths. Ecol Model Org 111:126

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderegg W, Goldsmith GR (2014) Public interest in climate change over the past decade and the effects of the “climategate” media event. Environ Res Lett 9:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ansolabehere S, de Figueiredo JM, Snyder JM (2003) Why is there so little money in U.S. politics? J Econ Perspect 17:105–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ard K, Garcia N, Kelly P (2017) Another avenue of action: an examination of climate change countermovement industries’ use of PAC donations and their relationship to Congressional voting over time. Environ Polit 26:1107–1131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aronczyk M, Espinoza M (2022) A strategic nature: public relations and the politics of American Environmentalism. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnett ML (2012) One voice, but whose voice? Exploring what drives trade association activity. Bus Soc 52:213–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumgartner FR, Leech BL (2001) Interest niches and policy bandwagons: patterns of interest group involvement in national politics. J Polit 63:1191–1213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumgartner FR, Berry JM, Hojnacki M, Kimball D, Leech B (2009) Lobbying and policy change: who win, who loses, and why. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Beder S (2002) Global spin: the corporate assault on environmentalism. VT, Chelsea Green Publishing, Chelsea

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett WL, Manheim J (2001) The big spin: strategic communication and the transformation of pluralist democracy. In: Bennett WLER (ed) Mediated politics: Communication in the future of democracy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Bombardini M, Trebbi F (2012) Competition and political organization: together or alone in lobbying for trade policy? J Int Econ 87:18–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonica A (2016) Avenues of influence: on the political expenditures of corporations and their directors and executives. Bus Polit 18:367–394

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brulle RJ (2000) Agency, democracy and nature. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brulle RJ (2014) Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations. Clim Change 122:681–694

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brulle RJ, Aronczyk M, Carmichael J (2020) Corporate promotion and climate change: an analysis of key variables affecting advertising spending by major oil corporations, 1986–2015. Clim Change 159:87–101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brulle RJ (2018) The climate lobby: a sectoral analysis of lobbying spending on climate change in the USA, 2000 to 2016. Clim Chang 149:289–303

  • Brulle RJ (2020) Networks of opposition: a structural analysis of U.S. climate change countermovement coalitions 1989–2015. Sociol Inq 0.

  • Caldeira GA, Hojnacki M, Wright JR (2000) The lobbying activities of organized interests in Federal Judicial Nominations. J Polit 62:51–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collison D (2003) Corporate propaganda: its implications for accounting and accountability. Account Audit Account J 16:853–886

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cory J, Lerner M, Osgood I (2021) Supply chain linkages and the extended carbon coalition. Am J Polit Sci 65:69–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Culhane T, Hall JG, Roberts T (2021) Who delays climate action? Interest groups and coalitions in state legislative struggles in the United States. Energy Res Soc Sci 79:1–15

  • Culpepper PD (2010) Quiet politics and business power: corporate control in Europe and Japan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dadush S (2017) The internal challenges of associational governance. AJIL Unbound 111:125–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delmas M, Lim J, Nairn-Birch N (2016) Corporate environmental performance and lobbying. Acad Manag Discov 2:175–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dowie M (1995) Losing ground: American environmentalism at the close of the twentieth century. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Downie C (2017) Fighting for king coal’s crown: business actors in the US coal and utility industries. Glob Environ Polit 17:21–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Downie C (2018) Ad hoc coalitions in the U.S. energy sector: case studies in the gas, oil, and coal industries. Bus Polit 20:643–668

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Downie C (2019) Business battles in the US energy sector: lessons for a clean energy transition. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Driessen P (2003) BP – back to petroleum. Inst Public Aff 55:13–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Drope JM, Hansen WL (2009) New evidence for the theory of groups: trade association lobbying in Washington, D.C. Polit Res Q 62:303–316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Drutman L (2015) The business of America is lobbying: how corporations became politicized and politics became more corporate. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Elsbach KD (1994) Managing organizational legitimacy in the California cattle industry: the construction and effectiveness of verbal accounts. Adm Sci Q 39:57–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Figueiredo JM, Richter BK (2014) Advancing the empirical research on lobbying. Annu Rev Polit Sci 17:163–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiorina M, Skocpol T (1999) Civic engagement in American democracy. DC, Brookings Institution Press, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Gautier A, Pache A (2015) Research on corporate philanthropy: a review and assessment. J Bus Ethics 126:343–369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg J, Knight G, Westersund E (2011) Spinning climate change; corporate and NGO public relations strategies in Canada and the United States. Int Commun Gaz 73:65–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grier K, Munger M, Roberts B (1994) The determinants of industry political activity, 1978–1986. Am Polit Sci Rev 88:911–926

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman M (2014) Artists of the possible: governing networks and American policy since 1945. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Guilhot N (2007) Reforming the world: George Soros, global capitalism and the philanthropic management of the social sciences. Crit Sociol 33:447–477

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall RL, Wayman FW (1990) Buying time: moneyed interests and the mobilization of bias in congressional committees. Am Polit Sci Rev 84:797–820

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen WL, Mitchell NJ (2000) Disaggregating and explaining corporate political activity: domestic and foreign corporations in national politics. Am Polit Sci Rev 94:891–903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harvey B, Bice B (2014) Social impact assessment, social development programmes and social licence to operate: tensions and contradictions in intent and practice in the extractive sector. Impact Assess Proj Apprais 32:327–335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes M (1986) The New Group Universe. In: Cigler A, Allan JLA (eds) Interest Group Politics. Congressional Quarterly Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Himmelstein J (1997) Looking good & doing good: corporate philanthropy and corporate power. IN, Indiana University Press, Bloomington

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoggan J (2009) Climate cover-up. BC, Greystone Books, Vancouver

    Google Scholar 

  • Hojnacki M, Kimball DC (1998) Organized interests and the decision of whom to lobby in Congress. Am Polit Sci Rev 92:775–790

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hojnacki M, Kimball DC, Baumgartner FR, Berry JM, Leech BL (2012) Studying organizational advocacy and influence: reexamining interest group research. Annu Rev Polit Sci 15:379–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins J, Carmichael J, Brulle RJ, Boughton H (2017) Foundation funding of the environmental movement. Am Behav Sci 61:1640–1657

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jordan G, Maloney WA (1977) The protest business? Martin’s Press, Mobilizing campaign groups, New York, St

    Google Scholar 

  • Keck M, Sikkink K (1998) Activists beyond borders: advocacy networks in international politics. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim SE, Urpelainen J, Yang J (2016) Electric utilities and American climate policy: lobbying by expected winners and losers. J Publ Policy 36:251–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kowal MS (2018) Corporate politicking, together: trade association ties, lobbying, and campaign giving. Bus Polit 20:98–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawton TC, Rajwani T, Minto A (2018) Why trade associations matter: exploring function, meaning, and influence. J Manag Inq 27:5–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Layzer J (2012) Open for business: conservatives’ opposition to environmental regulation. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Levy D, Kolk A (2002) Strategic responses to global climate change: conflicting pressures on multinationals in the oil industry. Bus Polit 4:275–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loomis B, Cigler A (1998) The changing nature of interest group politics. In: Loomis B, Cigler A (eds) interest group politics. Congressional Quarterly Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahoney C, Baumgartner FR (2015) Partners in advocacy: lobbyists and government officials in Washington. J Polit 77:202–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marchand R (1998) Creating the corporate soul: the rise of public relations and corporate imagery in American big business. CA, University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Meckling J (2015) Oppose, support, or hedge? Distributional effects, regulatory pressure, and business strategy in environmental politics. Glob Environ Polit 15:19–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milbrath L (1963) The Washington Lobbyists. Rand McNally, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Milyo J, Primo D, Groseclose T (2000) Corporate PAC campaign contributions in perspective. Bus Polit 2:75–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson M (1965) The logic of collective action: public goods and the theory of groups. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Palenchar MAKF (2009) Secret persuaders: ethical and rhetorical perspectives on the use of public relations front groups. In: Toth EL (ed) Rhetorical and critical approaches to public relations. Taylor & Francis. London

    Google Scholar 

  • Plec E, Pettenger M (2012) Greenwashing consumption: the didactic framing of ExxonMobil’s energy solutions. Environ Commun 6:459–476

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter WM (1992) The environment of the oil company: a semiotic analysis of Chevron’s “people do” commercials. In: Toth E, Heath R (eds) Rhetorical and critical approaches to public relations. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam R (2000) Bowling alone. Simon and Schuster, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier P (1988) An advocacy coalition framework of policy change and the role of policy-oriented learning therein. Policy Sci 21:129–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saitgalina M, Dicke LA, Birungi P (2020) Organizational Determinants of Political Involvement in Trade and Professional Membership Associations. Nonprofit Policy Forum 11:1–15

  • Schattschneider EE (1960) The semisoveriegn people: a realist’s view of democracy in America. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sethi SP (1977) Advocacy advertising and large corporations: social conflict, big business image, the news media, and public policy. Lexington, Lexington Books

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheehan K (2018) This ain’t your daddy’s greenwashing: an assessment of the American Petroleum Institute’s Power Past Impossible campaign. In: Rimmer M (ed) Intellectual property and clean energy: the Paris Agreement and Climate Justice. Springer Singapore, Singapore

    Google Scholar 

  • Shell Oil (1978) Shell Oil Company: the long range plan: go to the public to shine a tarnished Image. Madison Avenue Mag May:58–59

  • Skocpol T (1999) Advocates without members: the recent transformation of American civic life. Civic Engagement Am Democr 461:498–504

    Google Scholar 

  • Spillman L (2012) Solidarity in strategy: making business meaningful in American Trade Associations. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Staber U, Aldrich H (1983) Trade association stability and public policy. In: Hall R, Quinn R (eds) Organizational theory and public policy. Sage, California

    Google Scholar 

  • Supran G, Oreskes N (2017) Assessing ExxonMobil’s climate change communications (1977–2014). Environ Res Lett 12:1–18

  • Tedlow RS (1979) Keeping the corporate image: public relations and business, 1900–1950, Greenwich JAI Press.

  • Tucker A (2008) Trade associations as industry reputation agents: a model of reputational trust. Bus Polit 10:1–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vandeweerdt C, Kerremans B, Cohn A (2016) Climate voting in the US Congress: the power of public concern. Environ Polit 25:268–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker J (1991) Mobilizing interest groups in America: patrons, professions, and social movements. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Walker E (2014) Grassroots for hire: public affairs consultants in American democracy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Walker E, Rea C (2014) The political mobilization of firms and industries. Ann Rev Sociol 40:281–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waterhouse BC (2013) Lobbying America : the politics of business from Nixon to NAFTA. Princeton, United States, Princeton University Press

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Weible CM, Sabatier PA, Mcqueen K (2009) Themes and variations: taking stock of the advocacy coalition framework. Policy Stud J 37:121–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams EL, Bartone SA, Swanson EK, Stokes LC (2022) The American electric utility industry’s role in promoting climate denial, doubt, and delay. Environ Res Lett 17:094026

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zald M, Mccarthy J (1987) Social movements in an organizational society: collected essays. Transaction Publishers, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the informants who agreed to be interviewed for this project and for the thoughtful comments of the reviewers. We also thank participants at the 2022 American Political Science Association annual meeting as well as Stephen Bird and Darren Halpin. This paper was supported by funding from the Climate Social Science Network, and we received excellent research assistance from Yasmin Kirk and Frendo Allsop.

Funding

This project received funding from the Climate Social Science Network.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Robert Brulle

  2. School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), The Australian National University, Canberra ACT, 0200, Australia

    Christian Downie

Authors
  1. Robert Brulle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christian Downie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Robert Brulle: conceptualization, methodology, data analysis, writing; Christian Downie: conceptualization, methodology, interviews, writing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Downie.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Approval from ANU ethics committee.

Consent for publication

Both authors consent to this submission and have approval for this work.

Competing interests

The authors declare we have no conflict of interest associated with this manuscript.

Additional information

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 40 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Brulle, R., Downie, C. Following the money: trade associations, political activity and climate change. Climatic Change 175, 11 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03466-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03466-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation