Big Oil Is Bribing Members Of Congress To Look The Other Way On Climate Change

So far this cycle, the top half dozen direct oil and gas contributors to congressional campaigns were Koch Industries, Samson Energy, Exxon Mobil, Walter Oil & Gas, Chevron and Midland Energy. This shows the party split:

The crooked members of Congress who took the most in bribes from the oil and gas industry, just for this cycle were Joe Manchin (D-WV), Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Yvette Harrell (R-NM) and Jim Lankford (R-OK). Manchin took in about the same as the other 4 crooks combined. As chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, 2021 has been good year for him.

This is a different kind of list. It shows the members of Congress who have sucked up the biggest bribes from Oil and Gas since 1990-- a time when the industry has spent $356,338,457 buying members of Congress ($280,395,429 worth of Republicans and $74,664,128 worth of Democrats). None of the corrupt politicians had been charged with the obvious blatant bribery, so here's a list of Congress' most corrupt-- at least in terms of Oil and Gas. First the criminal senators (only current members):

• Mitt Romney (R-UT)- $8,044,446

• John Cornyn (R-TX)- $4,591,764

• Ted Cruz (R-TX)- $4,022,600

• Mitch McConnell (R-KY)- $3,827,893

• Jim Inhofe (R-OK)- $2,308,830

• Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)- $1,622,044

• Bill Cassidy (R-LA)- $1,614,604

• Jim Lankford (R-OK)- $1,413,220

• Marco Rubio (R-FL)- $1,382,889

• Kevin Cramer (R-ND)- $1,219,975

And now the criminals in the House:

• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- $2,306,664

• Kevin Brady (R-TX)- $2,077,046

• Steve Scalise (R-LA)- $1,713,753

• Pete Sessions (R-TX)- $1,489,325

• Don Young (R-AK)- $1,418,749

• Fred Upton (R-MI)- $1,207,661

• Kay Granger (R-TX)- $1,108,484

• Roger William (R-TX)- $1,107,399

• Tom Cole (R-OK)- $1,072,360

• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)- $1,054,365

South Texas progressive Tannya Benavides is running a spirited campaign for the seat occupied by Cisernos, every Republican's favorite Democrat. "In Texas, particularly en el Sur de Tejas, our incumbent Rep. Cuellar is one of the favored representatives by oil & gas executives," she told me last night. "The government-allowed corruption in campaign finance that makes way for the Cuellars in Congress, is partly to blame for the ongoing climate crisis and the inaction we see from representatives of the like. Like Sen. Sinema & Sen. Manchin, vendidos (sell-outs), will continue to look the other way on climate action so long as campaign contributions keep coming their way. But at what point will we say enough is enough? We have to ask ourselves, what is the price tag on our planet’s sustainability-- on preserving this earth for future generations? For Cuellar, that price tag is $800,000. For others like me, who are both eager and anxious to start a family, there is no bribe that would warrant sacrificing our future."

The only other House Democrats who took significant sewer money-- over a quarter million dollars-- from the Oil and Gas industry were Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA), Lizzie Fletcher (New Dem-TX), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Marc Veasey (New Dem-TX), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA) and Vicente Gonzalez (Blue Dog-TX).