The economists use Waxman-Markey, the most promising U.S. climate bill to date, to demonstrate a way to quantify the social impact of lobbying. Their method also shows how bills can be better written, they say, to withstand lobbying campaigns. They only had access to lobbying records for publicly-traded firms, so private firms and advocacy organizations are omitted from their calculations. However, publicly-traded firms accounted for the vast majority of lobbying expenditures on Waxman-Markey, they say: about 86 percent. The economists say their results can guide policymakers to write climate bills that don't encounter such successful opposition:"Our findings offer lessons for how future proposed climate policies can be designed to reduce political opposition.

Source: Forbes June 02, 2019 04:01 UTC