July 26th, 2017 by WCBC Radio

The oil and natural gas industry spent more than $1.4 million to influence Maryland lawmakers during this year’s General Assembly session. But lobbyists still lost their fight to allow fracking in Maryland. The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday that the American Petroleum Institute paid almost three times as much as the next-biggest spender on lobbying. The figures were recently released by the State Ethics Commission. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and the Democratic majority in the General Assembly still agreed to ban the method of extracting natural gas. The Maryland Hospital Association was the next-highest spender on lobbying at almost $500,000. The Maryland State Education Association, which represents the state’s teachers, came in third at almost $475,000.