As the company pushes forward on ambitious projects like Fiber and the self-driving car, Google has mounted an equally ambitious lobbying campaign in state capitols to make sure the projects arent held up by regulation. Google spent more than $3.8 million on lobbying at a federal level, but the state-level initiatives often let the company exercise more power with less scrutiny. In the case of locally expanding projects like Fiber, Googles lobbying efforts can be even more important than its technical plans.