https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/climate-panel_us_5c5c66cbe4b0d073e704216a
[“For young people, climate change is bigger than election or
re-election,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “It’s life or death.”
video and links in online article]
02/07/2019 13:38 EST | Updated 02/07/2019 15:27 EST
House Climate Panel Democrats Got Nearly $200,000 In Fossil Fuel
Industry Donations
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named nine Democrats to the new committee on
Thursday.
By Paul Blumenthal and Alexander C. Kaufman, HuffPost US
The nine Democrats selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to
serve on the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis received a combined
$198,000 from fossil fuel industry political action committees in the
2018 election cycle.
The majority of the donations went to Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), who
raised $117,000 from PACs connected to oil, gas, mining and electric
utility corporations. Those donations constituted 6 percent of all
contributions raised by Lujan. The rest of the appointees received scant
funds from fossil fuel PACs. The data comes from the Center for
Responsive Politics, a nonprofit that classifies campaign donations by
industry.
Pelosi appointed the nine members to the committee on Thursday.
Democrats created the select committee after winning control of the
House of Representatives in the 2018 elections. It is tasked with coming
up with policies to respond to man-made climate change.
Fundraising from the fossil fuel industry has been a flashpoint in the
debate over the committee’s creation. Activists have pressed members to
reject all fossil fuel money as a sign that they are independent from an
industry that has worked hard to suppress climate science and deny any
action to forestall disaster.
“That’s $200,000 of potential conflict of interest on an issue of grave
concern,” said David Turnbull, a spokesman for the coalition of groups
that oversee the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge. “If you’re going to be
talking about the critical issue of climate change, you need to rid
yourself of the influence of the fossil fuel industry.”
Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) was the only member named to the committee
who has signed pledges promising not to raise money from corporate PACs
or the fossil fuel industry. Prior to signing the No Fossil Fuel Money
Pledge, he did receive $1,500 from the National Association of Truck
Stop Owners, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of highway gas
stations for truckers.
Two members ― freshman Reps. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Rep. Joe Neguse
(D-Colo.) ― received just $1,000, the Center for Responsive Politics
data showed. But a spokeswoman for Neguse said the congressman turned
down that September donation from the South Dakota-based coal-fired
utility Black Hills Corp. She said Neguse “will take the pledge.”
Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), the select committee’s chairwoman, said in
December she would consider taking the pledge, but Turnbull confirmed
her office has not yet made any commitments. A Castor spokesman said she
“will not accept contributions from the fossil fuel industry.” Last
month, Castor divested shares of a mutual fund with fossil fuel utility
holdings after the watchdog site Sludge reported she and her husband had
up to $100,000 in investments in the fund.
Committee Democrats may not have raised huge sums from fossil fuel
industry PACs, but a few of them have collected significant
contributions from corporate donors. Lujan raised $1.1 million from
business and industry PACs ― more than half of all the money he raised
in the 2018 election cycle. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Julia
Brownley (D-Calif.), Donald McEachin (D-Va.) and Castor all raised more
than $300,000 apiece from corporate PACs in the last election.
“My values and voting record are clear,” Lujan said in a statement to
HuffPost. “I’ve been battling climate change and advocating for the
generation of renewable resources and energy efficiency since my time as
the Chairman of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, before I
was a Member of Congress. I respect and recognize New Mexico’s long
history as an energy state, that is why, throughout my career, I have
fought to ensure that New Mexico is a leader in our clean energy future.”
A spokeswoman for Bonamici said the “congresswoman generally does not
sign pledges but has never taken money from big oil.”
The announcement Thursday of the panel’s additional members came just
hours after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) released a resolution
outlining the core pillars of a so-called Green New Deal, an
unprecedented national plan to scale down greenhouse gas emissions over
the next decade.
At a press conference announcing the resolution, Ocasio-Cortez said
Pelosi invited her to join the select committee, but she turned it down.
“This is not a snub,” the congresswoman said, noting that three members
of the panel were standing beside her at the event.
Late last year, Ocasio-Cortez launched an aggressive bid to replace the
climate panel with a select committee on a Green New Deal. She garnered
support from roughly 40 House Democrats. But Pelosi rejected the plan,
tapping Castor in December to lead original select committee.
At the time, Castor declined to call for a rule barring members who
accepted fossil fuel money from serving on the panel. Ocasio-Cortez
panned the congresswoman in a tweet, comparing “loading a climate
committee” with fossil fuel money to “letting foxes in the henhouse.”
“For young people, climate change is bigger than election or
re-election,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “It’s life or death.”
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