Google's New Energy Lobbyists
Google has brought on McBee Strategic Consulting to lobby on energy efficiency and renewable resource issues in the 111th Congress. Steve McBee, a former senior aide to Rep. Norm Dicks and Sen. Maria Cantwell -- both Washington State Democrats -- and Rob Chamberlin, who most recently worked as chief counsel on the Senate Commerce Committee under Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will do some of the Internet company's bidding on Capitol Hill, according to a lobbying registration form filed last month.
Google's philanthropic arm has recently been investing in efforts to develop electricity from renewable energy cheaper than from coal. In August, the firm devoted more than $10 million in a breakthrough energy technology called enhanced geothermal systems as well as funds for researching next-generation geothermal resource mapping and a policy agenda for geothermal energy. Google has set a goal to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity -- enough to power a city the size of San Francisco -- in years, not decades. Google's energy team has been studying a number of ways to reduce fossil fuel use by 2030.
McBee has also registered to lobby this year for financial services giant JP Morgan Chase; property and casualty insurer Chubb Corporation; and Time Warner Cable, a division of media conglomerate Time Warner. In 2008, Google worked with a range of outside firms including Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck; Dutko Worldwide; Franklin Square Group; Hispanic Strategy Group; King & Spalding; the Podesta Group; Van Ness Feldman; and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.
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