Follow the Money - Lobbying

Southwestern Power Group spends roughly $40,000-$50,000 per quarter lobbying the government on behalf of SunZia. They have hired a company called Capitol Consultants, LLC,---and now (2011) T Champion Consulting LLC, to do their bidding. In 2009, they laid down $185,000... $180,000 in 2010, and $90,000 in the first half of 2011. And there could well be other lobbying done on behalf of the Sunzia project that we have yet to uncover. Recipients include the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Department of Interior (DOI), and the Council on Environmental Quality.

• Q1-2010 - $40,000 "SunZia Southwest Transmission Project"
• Q2-2010 - $40,000 "Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and FERC Declaratory Order for electric transmission line"
• Q3-2010 - $50,000 "Environmental Impact Statement from the Department of Interior and Declaratory Order from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for SunZia electric transmission line"
• Q4-2010 - $50,000 "BLM Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and FERC Declaratory Order"
• Q1-2011 - $50,000 "BLM Environmental Impact Statement for SunZia electric transmission line and FERC Declatory Order for SunZia electric transmisson line"
• Q2-2011 - $73,000 ($40,000 Southwestern Power Group + $33,000 SunZia) "Bureau of Land Management Environmental Impact Statement for electric transmission lines in New Mexico and Arizona"
  "Issues associated with the environmental review of the SunZia Transmission Project LLC"
• Q3-2011 - $76,000 ($40,000 Southwestern Power Group + $36,000 SunZia) "Bureau of Land Management Environmental Impact Statement for electric transmission lines in New Mexico and Arizona"
  "Issues associated with the environmental review of the SunZia Transmission Project LLC"

To see the public documentation of these practices, use the House Lobbying Disclosure Search form.

• Search using field 'House ID #' with a value of 36716002 (Southwestern Power Group)
• Search using field 'House ID #' with a value of 416660000 (SunZia)
• or, you can search using field 'Client Name' with a value of 'Southwestern Power Group' or 'Sunzia'

Alternatively, you can use the Lobbying Disclosure Act Database

• For "Step 1", check 'Client Name' and then click 'Submit'
• For "Step 2", type "Southwestern Power Group" or "SunZia" [2 seperate searches]
• wait a minute for the table of results to populate

Here are a few direct links:

http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/pdfform.aspx?id=300229547
http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=77AC7117-626D-44A9-8043-A0921D02351F
http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/pdfform.aspx?id=300111583
http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/pdfform.aspx?id=300111573
http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/pdfform.aspx?id=300136932
http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/pdfform.aspx?id=300224554
http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/pdfform.aspx?id=300195729

Another interesting link is the Center for Responsive Politics Open Secrets.org page on Southwestern Power Group, where you can view reports by year.