2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumFACT: Hillary & her SuperPAC have received $4.5 MILLION from OIL & GAS INDUSTRY to date
Greenpeace
Hillary Clintons Connection to the Oil and Gas Industry
Research compiled by Greenpeace USA
Contact: Perry Wheeler, perry.wheeler@greenpeace.org
Hillary Clintons campaign has been backed by the fossil fuel industry in a number of ways.
Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Super PAC supporting her have received more than $4.5 million from the fossil fuel industry.
First there are the direct contributions from people working for fossil fuel companies to Hillary Clintons campaign committee. According to the most recent filings, the committee has received $309,107 (as of 3/21/16; source: Center for Responsive Politics) from such donors.
Next are the fossil fuel lobbyists, many of whom have also bundled contributions. These donations also flow to Hillary Clintons campaign committee. Greenpeace has tracked $1,259,280 in bundled and direct donations from lobbyists currently registered as lobbying for the fossil fuel industry. This number excludes donations from lobbyists who are employed directly by a fossil fuel companies, as those donations would have been included in the previous number.
Last are contributions from fossil fuel interests to Super PACs supporting Hillary Clinton. Greenpeace has found $3,250,000 in donations from large donors connected to the fossil fuel industry to Priorities Action USA, a Super PAC supporting Secretary Clintons campaign.
All told, the campaign to elect Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 has received more than $4.5 million from lobbyists, bundlers, and large donors connected the fossil fuel industry.
Number of oil, gas and coal industry lobbyists that have made direct contributions to Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign: 57
57 registered oil, coal and gas lobbyists have personally given $126,200 to the Hillary campaign
Of those 57, 11 are bundlers.
11 lobbyists have bundled $1,140,930 in contributions to the Hillary campaign
43 lobbyists have contributed the maximum allowed ($2700).
This includes:
Lobbyists who have reported lobbying for the oil and gas industry both in-house company lobbyists and hired lobbyists from K-Street firms.
This does not include:
Industry executives
Other employees of the oil and gas industry
Board members
Corporate PAC contributions
Contributions by major investors
Donations to Super PACS or non-profit groups
Contributions made by trade associations to Super PACs
Hillary takes more from lobbyists in general than any other candidate
https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/select-industries.php
*********
Total Amount bundled from oil and gas lobbyists: $1,140,930
Examples:
*3 Enbridge lobbyists contributed to HRCs campaign. While she was Secretary of State, Clinton signed off on the Enbridge pipeline (the alternative to KXL).
*Ben Klein (Heather Podesta and Associates) lobbied on behalf of Oxbow Carbon on petcoke and other issues. Petcoke is a byproduct of refining. Communities in Detroit and Chicago have complained about piles of petcoke blowing into the community. Bill Koch (the estranged brother of Charles and David) owns controlling interest of Oxbow. Klein also lobbied on restrictions of ivory imports for Oxbow.
*Fracking company and gas industry trade association lobbyists have also contributed to Clintons campaign, including Former Rep. Martin Frost (D-TX), who lobbied for the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, and Martin Durbin of the American Natural Gas Association (now merged and part of the American Petroleum Institute API), the nephew of Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). Another donor is Elizabeth Gore, a lobbyist for WPX energy (fracking). A lobbyist for FTI Consulting, creator of an industry front group called Energy In Depth, also contributed to Clinton;s campaign. Although Clinton has said she would require FERC to consider climate change before granting any new gas pipeline permits, she recently told activists she would not ban fracking as president, and has a pro-fracking track record which has been well-documented by numerous groups, including pro-Clinton Super PAC Correct the Record.
*Marty Streett, a lobbyist for BP, gave Clintons campaign the maximum allowable amount ($2700). Her sister, Stephanie S. Streett, is the Executive Director of the William J. Clinton Foundation and former ED of the Bill Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation (Bill Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, 990 report 2013). The Podesta Group (Tony Podesta) also lobbied for BP, on issues including the Gulf of Mexico spill response and recovery.
*While Secretary of State, Clinton pushed fracking in countries around the world, through the departments Global Shale Gas Initiative. According to Grist, after the Bulgarian government signed a five-year deal with Chevron, major public protests led the Bulgarian parliament to pass a fracking moratorium. Clinton traveled to Bulgaria and then dispatched her special envoy for energy in Eurasia, Richard Morningstar, to push back against the fracking bans, which were eventually overturned.
*Clintons State Department played a major role in negotiating a bilateral oil agreement with Mexico. Her former special envoy for international energy affairs, David Goldwyn, has donated the maximum allowable amount to the campaign ($2700). Since leaving State, Goldwyn has consulted for companies wishing to profit from Mexicos decision to allow private oil services contractors into the country in order to expand PEMEXs ability to produce shale oil and tap deep offshore reserves.
*David Leiter (ML Strategies lobbyist for Exxon and a HRC bundler), the former Senate chief of staff to John Kerry, is also a lobbyist for Burisma Holdings, a private Ukrainian natural gas and uranium mining company with many connections to the Democratic Party. Bidens son Hunter joined Burismas board in 2014, right before Leiter was hired to lobby members about the role of the company in Ukraine (arguing for its role in helping Ukraine be independent of Russia). Another board member, Devon Archer, is a HRC donor (2700) and Democratic bundler (I dont see any record of him bundling for HRC). FTIs Lawrence Pacheco does communications for Burisma. Burisma is owned by a Cypriot holding firm, Brociti Investments Ltd, which is controlled by Nikolai Zlochevskyi, a former Ukrainian gov. minister.
*Although Clinton has said she supports an investigation into Exxons early concealment of what it knew about the risks of climate change and subsequent financing of climate denier front groups, her campaign has taken contributions from at least 7 lobbyists working for Exxon, including one in-house lobbyist Theresa Fariello who has bundled and additional $21,200 for the campaign.
*Hess lobbyists from Forbes-Tate (Daniel Tate, Jeffrey Forbes, George Cooper and Rachel Miller) all gave maximum allowable contributions to HRCs campaign. The firm lobbied on behalf of the Hess Corporation, on crude by rail and crude exports. Hess owns rail cars that came off the tracks and caught fire after a BNSF train derailed in North Dakota in early May, 2015. Hess is the third largest oil producer in North Dakota. Lynn Helms, a former Hess executive served as NDs top oil and gas regulator at the Department of Mineral Resources between 2005 and 2013. When Clinton came out in opposition to KXL she started talking about how fixing train tracks would create jobs. In December 2015, a couple of months after Clinton announced she opposed KXL, and just over a month after Obama turned KXL down, Warren Buffett who owns BNSF endorsed Clinton. Buffett is also a big oil investor (e.g. Phillips 66).
*Companies invested in LNG projects with lobbyists that have given to HRCs campaign include Freeport LNG (Elizabeth Gore Brownstein Hyatt, $500); LNG Allies (Michael Smith Cornerstone Gov. Affairs 2700 and a bundler of $59,400); Dominion Resources (Tom Lawler Lawler Strategies, 2700); Oregon LNG (Robert van Heuvelen VH Strategies 2700). Exxon also has LNG projects. Cheniere Energys Ankit Desai not only gave the maximum allowed, but also bundled $ 139,300 for the campaign. Another donor ($2700) to Clintons campaign is Heather Zichal, Obamas former energy advisor, who joined the board of Cheniere (LNG export company) after leaving the administration.
*Former Rep. Richard (Dick) Gephardts firm lobbies for Peabody Energy (coal), Prairie State (coal-fired power plant and adjacent mine), Ameren Services Co. Gephardt and his wife, son and daughter Chrissy all contributed the maximum allowed to Clintons campaign (Dick is the only fossil fuel lobbyist in the family). Gephardt, a Democratic Party super delegate, has pledged to support Clinton. In February, the DNC rolled back its previous commitment to not take any contributions from federally registered lobbyists. Clintons campaign has also received contributions from lobbyists representing big mining companies Westmoreland Coal, Arch Coal and Rio Tinto.
*************
Other points relevant to lobbyist contributions:
During the NH debate Clinton said donations are not evidence of favors, but in 2008 Clinton suggested the contributions Obama took from the industry were evidence of a quid pro quo.
But in April 2008, Clintons campaign aired a television ad portraying Obamas support for a 2005 energy bill as a quid pro quo for campaign donations. The ad said Obama had accepted $200,000 from executives and employees of oil companies, while criticizing him for voting for the Bush-Cheney energy bill that that put $6 billion in the pocket of big oil. The clear message: Obama backed the bill as a favor to donors.
Its worth noting that Obama didnt take any $ from lobbyists or PACs in 2008 and pledged to not take contributions from lobbyists in 2012, too, and gave some donations back.
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaign-updates/hillary-clintons-connection-oil-gas-industry/
daleanime
(17,796 posts)or anything like that going on.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)acc to a new report.
You would think that would be a concern if thinking about all life on the planet being unsustainable in the future is too big a concept to grasp.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/science/global-warming-antarctica-ice-sheet-sea-level-rise.html?_r=1
jillan
(39,451 posts)Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)daleanime
(17,796 posts)to be funny.
EndElectoral
(4,213 posts)Jitter65
(3,089 posts)daleanime
(17,796 posts)is completely nuts. If you don't have photos and witnesses of the money being placed directly in her hand....
Recursion
(56,582 posts)The industry donated precisely zero money to Clinton's campaign. This is such a stupid line of attack...
jeff47
(26,549 posts)think
(11,641 posts)Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)amborin
(16,631 posts)Heres just a partial list of the fossil fuelfriendly bundlers who raised money for Clinton from April through June:
ExxonMobil executive Theresa Mary Fariello raised $21,200. ExxonMobil is the worlds largest oil and gas company, and it has a particularly ugly history of funding climate change denial. It is also eager to exploit oil reserves in delicate regions such as the Arctic, despite its responsibility for the most devastating Arctic oil spill in history.
Brian Wolff, executive vice president at the Edison Electric Institute, a utility company trade association, came up with $26,600. EEI opposes and lobbies against the EPAs Clean Power Plan to limit CO2 emissions from power plants, the centerpiece of President Obamas Climate Action Plan. The power-plant regulations are essential for the U.S. to meet its emission-reduction targets under the Copenhagen Accord and to live up to the promises it is laying out in advance of U.N. negotiations in Paris this December. Clinton has pledged to protect the Clean Power Plan regulations.
Heather Podesta and Tony Podesta have raised $31,150 and $74,575, respectively. The power ex-couple are big-shot Democratic lobbyists. Tonys brother John is Clintons campaign chair and former White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton. Even though John Podesta is considered a climate hawk, Tony and his ex-wife Heather represent fossil fuel companies. Heathers recent past clients include Marathon Oil and Bill Kochs Oxbow Carbon, a coal giant, and from 2004 to 2006 she lobbied for Koch Industries. Tony lobbied for BP in the wake of its disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, and through last year he represented Golden Pass, a company co-owned by ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum that wants to export liquefied natural gas. To be fair, they also work on behalf of renewable fuel companies Tony represents SolarReserve, a solar power company, and Heather lobbies for the ethanol industry. You might call the Podestas the very embodiment of the Obama/Clinton all of the above energy policy.
Scott Parven and Brian Pomper, lobbyists for Chevron, bundled $24,700 and $29,700 for Clinton, respectively. Their work includes opposing the Clean Power Plan controls that Clinton supports, and protecting the tax breaks for oil companies that Clinton has previously called for eliminating.
One of Hillarys top fundraisers, Gordon Giffin, is a former lobbyist for TransCanada, the company pushing to build the Keystone XL pipeline.
Thats just a sampling. As the Huffington Post reports, Nearly all of the lobbyists bundling contributions for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clintons campaign have at one time or another worked for the fossil fuel industry.
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In its most recent print issue, The Nation magazine called on all presidential candidates to pledge not to take contributions from fossil fuel companies. Clintons two main Democratic opponents, Bernie Sanders and Martin OMalley, both climate hawks, took the pledge. Clinton didnt respond.
http://grist.org/climate-energy/hillary-clinton-rakes-in-money-from-fossil-fuel-interests/
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)We're smarter than we used to be & not so easily fooled. Someone should tell the establishment elite.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Is not good. Foreign policy decisions are about issues such as extracting and transporting oil, gas and coal as well about security and conflicts. Oil spills can cross borders easily, especially in areas such as British Columbia and Washington State.
Posted previously about Enbridge here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5832689
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5837820
mmonk
(52,589 posts)I'm glad you did.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Explains the lack of a plan, too.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)I went through a period, after it really sunk in, where I would silently apologize to every baby, beautiful tree, seagull, heron, sunflower, eagle, dog, cat, etc for the upcoming end of their species existence.
I can't internalize it like that anymore. It must be how doctors manage to interact with terminal patients. Its a detached compassion that I have now.
But I still have the strong drive to try to change things. While I myself as a citizen or "average voter" am powerless to change things on a fundamental scale, I still can refuse to vote for those who would be in power while being paid off by the people killing our planet.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)-- http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023676773
What keeps me going politically is Beethoven and his realization that his hearing wasn't coming back, but that he had to keep going on.
As long as there are two of us left, RiverLover, Democracy lives.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Thank you.
DanTex
(20,709 posts)think
(11,641 posts)DanTex
(20,709 posts)been funded by individuals and unions.
The money discussed in the OP, though, is not SuperPAC money, it is campaign money donated by individuals.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)Just because a powerful group makes a set of laws that allows them to legally engage in overtly unethical behavior doesn't mean that the people in a democracy are without recourse.
We are holding the trial right now and I have to tell you, things aren't going so well for your client.
DanTex
(20,709 posts)and she certainly hasn't taken corporate campaign money.
As far as the trial we're holding, I feel pretty good about how my client is doing. Check the delegate count...
kristopher
(29,798 posts)...is perfectly legal here. And perfectly ethical in Bizarro World.
Dem2
(8,168 posts)You know that's irrelevant, don't you?
She. Must. Be. Destroyed.
/s
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)How can you not stand with People? Unless you work for a Superpac or underhanded campaign, I can't see how anyone defends this. Or worse, tries to cover it up.
DanTex
(20,709 posts)Also, candidates have no control over who donates to SuperPACs, nor do they have any control over what SuperPACs do. SuperPACs are independent expenditure committees.
Hillary's campaign has received no corporate money, and it will never receive any corporate money and any such suggestion is an outright lie.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)corporation.
Two Clintons. 41 years. $3 BILLION.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/clinton-money/
marmar
(77,090 posts)In the spirit of their favored candidate.
They have much in common.
DanTex
(20,709 posts)Of course people don't give "on behalf" of a corporation. They give on behalf of themselves. Individuals have the right to donate up to $2700 to any candidate they want. It's the individual's money, they can do whatever they want with it, and corporations have no say in the matter.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Do you really think anyone believes this pathetic justification of the purchase of our political system?
You are kidding yourself if you do.
Maybe those above you are hoping otherwise, but it just makes you look like a poser.
DanTex
(20,709 posts)and individual money.
And judging from the delegate counts, there are more of us than there are of you.
marmar
(77,090 posts)..... that they'd insult their intelligence that way. But people are figuring it out. They're tired of neoliberal con artists.
amborin
(16,631 posts)questionseverything
(9,659 posts)perry.wheeler@greenpeace.org.
Hillary Clintons campaign has been backed by the fossil fuel industry in a number of ways.
First, there are the direct contributions from people working for fossil fuel companies to Clintons campaign committee. According to the most recent filings, the committee has received $309,107 (as of March 21, 2016; source: Center for Responsive Politics) from such donors.
Next are the fossil fuel lobbyists, many of whom have also bundled contributions. These donations also flow to Clintons campaign committee. Greenpeace has tracked $1,465,610 in bundled and direct donations from lobbyists currently registered as lobbying for the fossil fuel industry. This number excludes donations from lobbyists who are employed directly by a fossil fuel companies, as those donations would have been included in the previous number.
Last are contributions from fossil fuel interests to Super PACs supporting Hillary Clinton. Greenpeace has found $3,250,000 in donations from large donors connected to the fossil fuel industry to Priorities Action USA, a Super PAC supporting Secretary Clintons campaign.
All told, the campaign to elect Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 has received more than $4.5 million from lobbyists, bundlers, and large donors connected the fossil fuel industry.
//////////////
i think it is important to point out if greenpeace was slandering hc as dan suggests...hc has plenty of money and manpower to sue them to make them stop
since she is not doing that i assume greenpeace has that old best defense of TRUTH
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)There it is. QE
kristopher
(29,798 posts)Legalized Bribery.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)He suggests we not do it.
No wonder the Clintons have always hated him.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Good point.
salinsky
(1,065 posts)... has been heavy with demagoguery and light with reality, so this line of attack is totally in character.
revbones
(3,660 posts)Sorry some have a problem with that.
salinsky
(1,065 posts)... someone knowingly and continuously makes accusations that are factually and demonstrably incorrect?
That is what the Sanders campaign is engaged in here.
randome
(34,845 posts)Why is this not worrisome to you? What is the cutoff number at which your concern kicks in? Face it, all candidates receive bundled money. Even -gasp!- Bernie Sanders!
[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 90% chance of rain means the same as a 10% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)But it isn't.
Uncle Joe
(58,417 posts)Thanks for the thread, RiverLover.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)I think you've become my favorite Uncle.
Marr
(20,317 posts)Hillary fans today. They're literally claiming there is *zero* corporate money in politics now.
I thought the pro-fracking episode represented maximum spin velocity. Apparently not.
Response to RiverLover (Original post)
felix_numinous This message was self-deleted by its author.
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)The question is not whether Hillary (or any other candidate) followed the letter of the law. It is "has her campaign benefitted from corporate donations?" Yes technical details matter and the accusation is worded in a way that allows her groupies to protest. But any reasonable person who is concerned about corporate influence, should have reservations about the fact that they are indeed helping her even if they are not donating directly to her campaign.
If she wanted to reject that money going to support her campaign is there a way for her to tell the superpac to "cut it out"?
PonyUp
(1,680 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)TheDormouse
(1,168 posts)AzDar
(14,023 posts)colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)As usual the Hillary work crew rebuts with vague this and that.
amborin
(16,631 posts)joeybee12
(56,177 posts)Is Bernie going to give back the money he got AFTER signing a pledge NOT to take such money...oh wait, that's DIFFERENT.
randr
(12,414 posts)She wants to deny the obvious because she knows it is viewed, in this election cycle, as the wrong thing to do.
Let us hope we put an end to CU and this activity becomes a thing of the past.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)"Libya has some of the biggest and most proven oil reserves 43.6 billion barrels outside Saudi Arabia, and some of the best drilling prospects."
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/component/acymailing/archive/view/listid-3-alerts-precis/mailid-74-three-little-words-wikileaks-libya-oil.html
amborin
(16,631 posts)amborin
(16,631 posts)PonyUp
(1,680 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Servant of Satan and Big Oil.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/8741148/Dick-Cheney-heaps-praise-on-Hillary-Clinton.html
It's almost weird how Rachel hasn't talked about that.