Foreign Companies Pay to Influence U.S. Policy

BP, which ranked 52nd among lobbying groups overall—just ahead of insurance giant American International Group Inc., the American Bankers Association and Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.—was one of several oil companies involved with Arctic Power, a lobbying consortium that has led the years-long efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and drilling.
In late 2002, in the face of the debate over the potential profitability of developing the region, BP—like a number of large U.S. oil companies—withdrew from the lobbying group, citing the action as a cost-cutting move and deferring its decision on whether to expand Alaskan operations into ANWR until Congress had finished its deliberations.