2001 Corporate Power Chart
The Stranger's Second Annual List of Swaggering Titans
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The list includes 11 Puget Sound-area companies. However, unlike last year, Washington state didn't have a company in the top 10--as Boeing slid from the 10th spot to the 15th spot. (Boeing profits dropped eight percent in 2000.)
Fortune's annual list, a celebration of stockholders' equity, profits, and "market cap," provides a snapshot of the most powerful force in our country: corporate wealth. Fortune 500 dollars dominate our political system in the form of campaign cash and lobbying expenditures, overwhelm our legal system with highly paid attorneys, and shape our culture with advertising.
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The impact of this power is tangible. For example, during the 2001 Olympia session, some lawmakers pushed legislation (House Bill 1840 and SB 5867) that would have required utilities to invest three percent of their revenues in renewable energy sources, conservation, and low-income assistance. The idea got killed when local Fortune 500 heavies Avista and Puget Sound Energy flexed their muscle--killing the bill in the state senate and preventing the bill from even being heard in the house.
With combined revenues of $11.3 million, Avista and Puget Sound Energy would have been required to contribute $350,000 to the assistance programs. Instead, they contributed nearly $20,000 to members of the two legislative committees that kept the bill at bay. (No word on how much money citizens who need low-income assistance contributed.)
For such a ubiquitous force in society, corporations are notably aloof when it comes to public scrutiny. After all, they aren't bound by the same standards of public disclosure as government agencies.
The following list, which spotlights Washington entries in the Fortune 500, is an attempt to add some context to Fortune's annual exercise in shareholder cheerleading. --JOSH FEIT
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