https://www.eenews.net/articles/meet-the-top-house-recipients-of-oil-and-gas-money/ Meet the top House recipients of oil and gas money By Scott Waldman | 01/26/2023 06:43 AM EST The oil and gas industry donated millions of dollars to members of the House in the last election cycle. Now, many of the top recipients are well-positioned to advance its interests. Two of them — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) — serve in leadership positions. Several more have been assigned to House committees where they will wield outsize influence over energy and climate policy. Of the top 10 recipients of oil and gas money in the 2022 election cycle, eight are Republican, according to data from OpenSecrets, which tracks political spending. The contributions include donations of more than $200 from individuals, as well as money from political action committees that represent energy companies and organizations, including the American Petroleum Institute, Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Koch Industries Inc. McCarthy was the top recipient with $616,563 in oil and gas donations. Scalise received $368,291 from the industry, enough to land him fourth on the list. Six of the top 10 lawmakers hail from Texas, including Rep. Wesley Hunt, a rising star in the Republican party. That an industry would give money to politicians to gain influence is neither new nor unique to the fossil fuel sector. But it highlights the problem with American campaign financing, said Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush. The contributions buy real influence, he said. And oftentimes, it has nothing to do with the interests of the constituents in a congressional district, he said. “These industries pick their favorites and back their favorites and expect their legislation or a lack of regulation in return,” he said, adding, “This is a pattern that you see a lot, and fossil fuels is definitely a GOP industry.” In response to a question from E&E News, Amanda Eversole, API's executive vice president and chief advocacy officer, said the powerful lobbying group backs candidates who can further its causes. “API supports leaders from both parties who align with our policy priorities and recognize the importance of the U.S. natural gas and oil industry in supporting millions of American jobs and meeting demand for affordable, reliable energy,” Eversole said in a statement. It’s no surprise that seven of the 10 on the list are from Texas and New Mexico, which is where the oil and gas industry is most focused on its expansion in the near future, said Collin Rees, senior campaigner at Oil Change International. He said the amount of the donations is more than it was a decade ago, which suggests the industry is increasingly concerned about U.S. climate policy. Indeed, OpenSecrets data shows that the top recipients in the last election cycle received almost $4 million, and the top 10 in 2012 — which also includes McCarthy — received about $3 million. “It’s clear from that list, the industry feels like it’s under siege, and it should be,” he said. “We’re finally starting to see some early stages of real climate action, but that’s scaring them; they’re doubling down,” he said. Notably, none of the hard-right conservatives who embrace climate denial, such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, made the list. One top recipient was Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), now chair of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. She was seventh on the list with $295,467 in contributions. McMorris Rodgers recently introduced the Strategic Production Response Act, which would prevent the Biden administration from tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve unless it develops a plan to increase oil and gas leasing on public lands. The bill is expected to pass the House later this week, but is unlikely to go anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate. McMorris Rodgers already has said she’ll go after pieces of the Inflation Reduction Act, including an Energy Department loan program designed to boost clean energy technology. Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) received the second-highest contributions from the oil and gas industry in the last electoral cycle. Pfluger, a retired Air Force colonel, is a second-term congressman from a heavily Republican district and a former member of the Trump administration’s National Security Council. In a video announcing his appointment to the Energy and Commerce Committee, Pfluger said he would use his seat to fight for the oil and gas fields of Odessa and Midland, Texas. That region is central to the industry's expansion. “I proudly represent the men and women of the Texas energy industry who power the world and lifted a billion people out of poverty," Pfluger said in a statement to E&E News. "I will continue working against President Biden’s anti-American energy policies and FOR American energy independence.” Hunt was the third-highest recipient of oil and gas money, with $415,445 in contributions. Hunt, a veteran and West Point graduate, is a first-term congressman. He’ll serve on the House Judiciary and Natural Resources committees. In announcing his appointments, Hunt referred to himself as the “Energy Congressman of the World.” Before his election, Hunt told the Community Impact newspaper that producing more domestic oil and gas is the best way to reduce the world’s carbon footprint. “Weaning the world off of coal and unleashing US LNG will do more to reduce our carbon footprint than any solar or wind project could accomplish,” he said. Only two Democrats made the list of top 10 recipients in the House, and both are from Texas districts with significant energy resources. Rep. Henry Cuellar was the fifth-highest recipient, with $354,692 in donations, and Rep. Lizzie Fletcher came in sixth with $304,920. Cuellar, who frequently promotes fossil fuels, has served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee and is expected to do so again this year. In response to E&E News, Cuellar said in a statement that the Eagle Ford Shale was a key economic driver of his district. “I support the Oil and Gas Industry as it provides 40,000 jobs to my home district and contributes $4.2 billion to the local economy,” he said. “This job base and tax revenue translates to more money in the pockets of South Texans and further investments for local governments and school districts.” None of the other lawmakers responded to request for comment. Fletcher, who appeared on stage alongside Cuellar at a recent API event, will continue serving on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Fletcher has worked with Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) to push the Biden administration to use money from the bipartisan infrastructure bill to locate a hydrogen hub in Houston, which would benefit the natural gas industry. Crenshaw received $271,222 in oil and gas donations in the last Congress, putting him in ninth place on the list. Crenshaw will remain on the Energy and Commerce Committee and serve on the House Intelligence Committee in the new Congress. Ranked eighth on the list is former Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.), who served one term in Congress before losing her reelection bid in November to Democrat Gabe Vasquez, who campaigned on support for renewable energy. Herrell received $276,151. Herrell was the ranking member on the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment and represented an oil-rich section of the state and campaigned on her defense of the oil and gas industry. Herrell has denied the role of climate change in driving deadly wildfires in her state. “I can’t see the connection there with fossil fuels,” Herrell told the Carlsbad Current-Argus. “We can all go back and look at trends with the weather.” Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) came in at number 10, with $260,237 in contributions. Gonzales is on the Appropriations Committee. © POLITICO, LLC
Sad that goverment bribery is legal in this country. No surprise that republicans takes the most bribes.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/climate-groups-cop28-uae It's a global affair.. 450+ Climate Groups to UN: 'No COP Overseen by a Fossil Fuel Executive' Can Be Legitimate "Appointing a petrol company executive as president of COP28 is an effrontery several orders of magnitude beyond anything that happened before in the history of the U.N. climate process." JAKE JOHNSON Jan 26, 2023 A global network of more than 450 climate justice organizations said Thursday that the upcoming COP28 talks in United Arab Emirates will—like the United Nations climate conferences before it—end in failure as long as the fossil fuel industry is allowed to influence and dictate the terms of the event. The Kick Big Polluters Out network raised particular concern over the UAE's recent appointment of Sultan Al Jaber, head of the country's state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), to preside over the end-of-year talks—a decision that climate campaigners said throws the integrity and seriousness of COP28 into further question. "There is no honor in appointing a fossil fuel executive who profits immensely off of fueling the climate crisis to oversee the global response to climate change," the network wrote in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) executive secretary Simon Stiell, and all parties to the UNFCCC. "That such a move could ever be seen to be legitimate amidst an intensifying climate crisis where millions of lives and ecosystems are on the line exemplifies just how insidious Big Polluters' stranglehold over climate policy is," continued the letter, which was spearheaded by four UNFCCC constituencies representing millions of people. "No COP overseen by a fossil fuel executive can be seen as legitimate. COP presidencies must be free and independent of fossil fuel influence. It's time for the UNFCCC to deliver the long overdue equitable phaseout of fossil fuels." The letter comes days after Politicoreported that the U.N. is "querying the presidency of this year's COP28 climate talks over its ties" to ADNOC, the 12th-largest oil company in the world by production. "The main COP28 team is using two stories of an 11-floor office building in Abu Dhabi also used by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology located next to ADNOC's headquarters," Politico noted. "That prompted the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to send a series of questions to the presidency of the climate talks enquiring about whether the presidency will be independent of the oil company." According to the outlet, which cited an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter, the questions raised by the U.N. "include whether there is a firewall between the two institutions; whether ADNOC has access to COP28 meetings and strategic documents; if the staff working on the climate conference are relying on the oil giant's IT systems; if part of the work will be devoted to protecting ADNOC's interests; and whether the climate team is being paid by the oil company." "Polluters have a role to play: Stop polluting. They cannot be placed on a leadership pedestal." Rejecting pressure to rescind his appointment, the UAE has said Al Jaber will stay on as head of ADNOC as he presides over COP28, a striking conflict of interest given the oil giant's financial interest in limiting the scope of climate action. John Kerry, the United States' special presidential envoy for climate, praised the selection of Al Jaber to oversee COP28, calling the oil company executive a "terrific environmentalist." The UAE, one of the world's biggest oil producers, has ratified the Paris climate accord, but experts say its policies are way out of alignment with the agreement's critical 1.5°C warming limit. Cansın Leylim Ilgaz, associate director of global campaigns at 350.org, said Thursday that "letting petrostates host the U.N. climate talks is bad enough, but appointing a petrol company executive as president of COP28 is an effrontery several orders of magnitude beyond anything that happened before in the history of the U.N. climate process." "Attempts to sugarcoat this scandalous decision only serve to undermine the huge efforts of everyone working to limit global heating," Ilgaz added. "This brazen attempt of the dying fossil fuel industry to predetermine the outcome of COP28 will not stand." But the Kick Big Polluters Out network stressed in its letter that the problem of fossil fuel influence on U.N. climate talks runs much deeper than Al Jaber. "Fossil fuel interests overrun the UNFCCC and threaten its credibility," the network wrote. "At COP27 last November, more than 630 fossil fuel lobbyists registered to attend the climate negotiations. The UAE, now hosting COP28, had more fossil fuel lobbyists on its delegation than any other country. The grim reality is that this appointment represents a tipping point in which the UNFCCC is rapidly losing any legitimacy and credibility." To succeed at delivering "the needed climate equity and action to end the era of fossil fuels, and to rapidly and justly transition to a new global system," the network said the UNFCCC must agree to four demands: 1. Big Polluters cannot write the rules. Big Polluters must not be allowed to unduly influence climate policymaking. This allows them to continue to weaken and undermine the global response to climate change, and it’s why we are on the brink of extinction. The UNFCCC must urgently establish an Accountability Framework, including a regime-wide conflict-of-interest policy, that systematically ends this corporate capture. 2. No more Big Polluters bankrolling climate action. No Big Polluter partnership or sponsorships of climate talks or climate action. Not now. Not ever. Major polluters must not be allowed to greenwash themselves and literally buy their way out of culpability for a crisis they have caused. The UNFCCC will always fail to deliver so long as this is deemed acceptable. 3. Polluters out and People in. While civil society has always participated in the COP process, governments have made it more difficult each time for non-governmental organizations and climate justice movements to have their voices heard. We need equitable, meaningful inclusion of civil society. Climate action must center the leadership and lived experience of the people, especially those on the frontlines of the climate crisis. With frontline communities in the lead, we must end the funding and validation of dangerous distractions and false solutions that promote Big Polluters' profits, enable their abuses, and guarantee decades more of fossil fuel use. 4. Reset the system to protect people and the planet, not Big Polluters. Big Polluters are destroying life as we know it. It's time to build a new way of living and collaborating that works for people, not polluters, and that restores, rather than destroys, nature. We need real, just, accountable, gender-responsive, community-led, nature-restoring, and proven and transformative solutions to be implemented rapidly and justly. We need a total and equitable transition off of fossil fuels. We need real solutions that center the rights of Indigenous peoples, local communities, women, workers, and the protection of those speaking up for justice. We need an end to the impunity of corporate abuses "Polluters have a role to play: Stop polluting," said Gadir Lavadenz of the global campaign to Demand Climate Justice. "They cannot be placed on a leadership pedestal and certainly not in a position to undermine and weaken policy. That is basically nonsense. The UNFCCC is not only reluctant to accept a straightforward conflict of interest policy, but it is undermining its already weak international trust year after year."