Oil Lobbyists to Appeal to American Public

Today, the Washington Post reported that the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s main oil lobby, is embarking on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign.

The intended audience is elected officials and the public, with an emphasis on the latter. The industry is trying to convince voters — who, in turn, will make the case to their members of Congress — that rising energy prices are not the producers’ fault and that government efforts to punish the industry, especially with higher taxes, would only make pricing problems worse.

The campaign has stirred outrage among consumer groups. They complain that the industry is using its outlandish profits to make even more money, and that its advertisements use statistics selectively.

The news comes on the heels of a brief record high of bulk oil prices coming in at $126 a barrel, before falling back down to $124.