The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry's main lobby, has embarked on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign, 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 would only make pricing problems worse.
The oil lobby
thinks it has made significant progress with consumers and will make even more as it continues to spend heavily on public relations. Allied industry groups such as coal and natural gas are also
increasing their efforts to curry favor with the public, hoping to improve citizens' sometimes poor opinion of them.
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. "It's basically deceptive advertising that dulls the natural and
proper reaction of the public," said Mark N. Cooper, research director of the Consumer Federation of America.
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