Half a billion dollars to get a gentler climate-change plan

New York

THERE could be half a billion reasons for the concessions US President Barack Obama's clean-power plan made to a defiant energy industry.

Electric utilities, oil companies and their allies spent US$502 million on lobbying in the year since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new regulations on carbon emissions from power plants, according to disclosures reviewed by Bloomberg. That's 22 times more than renewable-energy companies and environmentalists spent.