Almost half of Maryland’s fossil fuel lobbyists are complicit in a “catastrophic failure” to comply with lobbyist disclosure requirements, finds a new audit from F Minus. Fossil fuel and incinerator lobbyists complied with a State Ethics Commission requirement to disclose the numbers of the bills on which they lobbied in just 55% of their disclosures for the 2025 legislative session, the audit finds, up slightly from a 47% compliance rate for the 2024 session.
The audit also finds that Maryland’s disclosure system fails to give real-time information about lobbyists’ activities because it does not require them to disclose what they lobbied on during the January – April session until May 31. As an example, Gov. Wes Moore vetoed the RENEW Act, which would have authorized a study of the cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and two other climate bills in mid-May, before lobbyists were required to disclose their opposition to these bills on behalf of clients such as the American Petroleum Institute and Baltimore Gas and Electric. Moore last week reversed his stance on doing a study of GHG costs, but the full extent of lobbyists’ opposition to the RENEW Act in 2025 is still hidden, the audit finds, because of poor disclosure and lax enforcement of disclosure requirements by the State Ethics Commission.
Key findings:
- Fossil fuel lobbying firms with the worst disclosure rates were Capitol Strategies, Cornerstone Government Affairs, and Evans & Associates, all of which failed to disclose a single bill lobbied upon for their fossil fuel clients. Cornerstone Government Affairs failed to disclose its work against the RENEW Act on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute, a leading voice of climate denialism.
- In 2024, Gov. Moore received $25,000 in campaign contributions from lobbyists at a Congressional firm that represents ExxonMobil, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and $8,500 from lobbyists at Cornerstone Government Affairs.
- Poor compliance with Maryland’s already weak disclosure requirements is obscuring the extent to which firms are taking contradictory stances on climate issues on behalf of different clients. For example:
- Schwartz, Metz, Wise & Kauffman lobbied for the RENEW Act on behalf of MedChi, while simultaneously lobbying against an environmental justice bill (HB 1484) on behalf of the National Waste & Recycling Association.
- Venable LLP lobbied for this same environmental justice bill on behalf of the National Aquarium, but then lobbied against reforming Maryland’s renewable energy portfolio standards (RPS) on behalf of BGE. RPS reform has been considered an environmental justice issue because low-income communities and communities of color have been disproportionately harmed by pollution from Maryland’s trash-burning incinerators.
“It’s scandalous that so many fossil fuel lobbyists are refusing to comply with disclosure requirements,” said James Browning, Executive Director of F Minus, who served as Executive Director of Common Cause Maryland from 2001-05. “As the climate crisis worsens, people are going to look back on this period and wonder why a pro-climate state like Maryland let these lobbyists operate with such a high degree of secrecy. Legislators who are fighting the fossil fuel industry need to step up and support more funding for the Ethics Commission so it can hold these lobbyists accountable.”
The audit recommends strengthening Maryland’s lobbyist disclosure system to require two mid-session disclosures of lobbying activities, one in mid-February and one in mid-March. It also recommends requiring lobbyists to disclose the positions they take on bills, and increasing funding for the Ethics Commission so it can conduct more audits of its own.
The F Minus audit covers 95 activity reports filed by 68 lobbyists on behalf of 25 fossil fuel and waste-to-energy companies. Links and summary information from these reports are available here.