Apparently their current amount of influence isn't good enough.Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The American Petroleum Institute (API), Big Oil's chief lobbying organization, will start directly backing political candidates in the second quarter of this year. API, whose membership includes oil giants like Exxon-Mobil and Chevron, already spends tens of millions of dollars every year on lobbying, advertisements, and Astroturf campaigns to support the the oil industry agenda. As the Center for American Progress's Dan Weiss wrote, API "wants to drill in fragile, sensitive places, keep government tax breaks, expand offshore drilling without reforms, and block global warming pollution reduction requirements." …