AI-Powered Advocacy Firms Flood Energy Hearings With Mass Comments
Digital advocacy platforms appear to use AI to generate bulk public comments on local energy projects, mostly backing fossil fuels.
Local officials across the U.S. are getting swamped. From California to North Carolina, policymakers weighing energy decisions are being buried under avalanches of public comments — and digital advocacy firms appear to be behind it.
Companies like CiviClick and Influent are running platforms that tout AI capabilities and appear to use them to generate mass public comments on local energy projects. The pattern is consistent: most of these comments favor fossil fuel use.
The flood targets officials at a critical juncture — when they're actively weighing policy changes on energy infrastructure. The sheer volume of AI-generated input threatens to drown out organic public feedback and distort the democratic process around energy planning.
It's a new front in the AI manipulation playbook: forget social media bots. These firms are targeting the mundane but consequential world of local government comment periods.