Spending on lobbyists and campaign contributions targeting the NC General Assembly is skyrocketing.

Given the dominance of anti-environmental bills in this year’s legislative session, it should come as no surprise that pro-polluter industry trade groups and corporate PACs are the biggest spenders.

According to the most recent data released by the NC Secretary of State’s office, three of the top five lobbying spenders for 2022 were the NC Chamber of Commerce (#1), Duke Energy (#2), and the NC Farm Bureau (#4). The other two were health care trade groups.

According to an analysis article on the progressive group Carolina Forward’s blog, the same groups also are dominating both direct campaign contributions from corporate PACs and the “dark money” spending on ‘independent’ advertising meant to impact campaigns. See the breakdown here.

“Passing major legislation in today’s General Assembly is increasingly a ‘pay to play’ proposition. The same organizations that lead the pack in lobbying above are also among the biggest spenders on North Carolina political campaigns and on ‘dark money’ political ads,” reads the blog post. “Thus, the rapid growth of lobbying spending shouldn’t be seen as adversarial with the lawmakers in charge, but more as a result therefrom. With a legislature gerrymandered for comfortable control by one party, lobbyists face the challenge of heightened competition among themselves for a smaller number of lawmakers who can pass bills.”

Recovering from this unhealthy environmental status will require that pro-environment advocacy groups like NCLCV and its Conservation PAC raise the resources to help balance the scales in more strategic contests.