ACC Pushes Energy Campaign

The American Chemistry Council, an industry trade association, last week launched an “energy advocacy and awareness” campaign to promote its national energy policies. The effort highlights chemistry’s role in “enabling a strong, secure, and sustainable future for the U.S.,” according to an ACC statement. The association stresses the importance of all energy sources, but according to campaign materials, the program will emphasize shale gas development and the recent huge jump in natural gas supplies that financially benefit the chemical industry. ACC will advocate for a national energy strategy that maximizes domestic energy production, energy efficiency, and energy recovery programs, it says. Meanwhile, ACC in the last quarter of 2011 more than doubled its lobbying spending, according to a study by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group that tracks money in U.S. politics. ACC’s spending for that quarter was the fifth highest of any lobbying organization on Capitol Hill, according to the study.