US utilities are on track to spend $150 million on lobbying this year, reaching the highest level in more than a decade, according to fresh data from nonprofit OpenSecrets.
The figure would be about 14% more than the $132 million spent last year and would be the most since 2010, according to the nonpartisan OpenSecrets, which tracks lobbying and political spending.
The increase means that the power sector is now on roughly the same footing as oil and gas, hospitals and securities, Dan Auble, a senior researcher at OpenSecrets, said in an interview.
The once-sleepy utility industry has been ...