Officials at General Motors, Ford Motor and DaimlerChrysler said this week that they had not lobbied on the electric utilities issue.
Josephine Cooper, the president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a Washington-based trade group, said that the auto industry had been watching the electric utilities' issue closely but had not weighed in.
The telephone survey of conservation managers asked whether their utilities issued calls for water conservation in the summer of 2007, if any mandatory cuts on water use were issued, and what types of messages and tools were used to inform the users about drought conditions and the actions they should undertake to conserve.
It investigated issues including enrollment patterns and more technical ones related to site selection, including traffic patterns, sewer and utility issues, land grade and the presence of wetlands.
The search crews knocked on doors, asked neighbors whether they knew the whereabouts of people who did not answer and checked for dangerous structural or utility issues.
Daniel E. Frank, a Washington-based lawyer who specializes in utility issues, said, "It takes time to do it and nobody has a lot of time.
"I would hope the incumbents stand back and look at what they're seeing across the country," said Jim Baller, a lawyer in Washington who represents local governments in utility issues.
We're hoping "to make the industry stand up and say, 'We've got to fix what's going on here,"' said Susan Weinstock, national coordinator, economic and utility issues, with AARP.
Neal Lewis, the executive director of the Long Island Neighborhood Network, which has been involved in utility issues for years, said his group would not apply and supported continued funding for the existing panel.
Last year's bill, Democratic aides said, contained better consumer protections on utility issues, did more to promote renewable energy sources, had less onerous provisions on hydroelectric power and addressed climate-change issues when the developing Senate bill might have ignored that subject.
