So you want your gas prices to go down? You're going to need a lot of money to counter the oil companies lobbying heft. Political Money Line shows us how much the oil companies spent in lobbying expenses last year:

• ChevronTexaco $8,550,000
• ExxonMobil $7,140,000
• ConocoPhillips $5,098,084
• Marathon $4,290,000
• BP $2,880,000
• Occidental $2,042,177
• Shell $1,478,831
• Ashland $904,000
• Sunoco $540,000
• Anadarko $250,000

The final total for the entire industry reaches $33,173,092.