All have supported insurance policies to increase {industry} pleasant federal leasing to Huge Oil and different extractive sectors.
A number one authorities accountability watchdog on Tuesday known as out leaders of the Republican-controlled U.S. Home of Representatives whereas revealing that the 21 GOP members appointed by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to the Pure Assets Committee took a mixed $3.8 million in marketing campaign contributions from Huge Oil.
Oil and gasoline {industry} contributions to the 21 right-wing lawmakers vary from greater than $850,000 for Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana — the nation’s third-biggest fossil gasoline producer and a top-10 oil-producing state — to $18,800 for Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia, according to Accountable.US.
“The brand new MAGA-controlled Home Pure Assets Committee aligns a lot nearer with violent anti-public land extremists just like the Bundys than they do with most Individuals,” the group mentioned in a press release, referring to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more” 2016 marketing campaign slogan and the Nevada household that perpetrated an armed confrontation with the U.S. Bureau of Land Administration over unpaid cattle grazing charges.
Accountable.US continued:
Of the Republicans on the committee, 5 outright oppose federal public lands, most have demonstrated assist for election denial, and all have supported insurance policies to increase industry-friendly federal leasing to Huge Oil and different extractive sectors. Whereas almost all the members have acquired donations from oil and gasoline firms, a number of have private monetary conflicts of curiosity within the type of both spousal employment or inventory holdings.
“Huge Oil’s funding is already paying off,” mentioned Jordan Schreiber, director of power and atmosphere at Accountable.US. “McCarthy and his MAGA allies wasted no time delivering outcomes for his or her rich {industry} donors, putting 9 of essentially the most excessive anti-conservation members on the Home Pure Assets Committee.”
“As a substitute of holding Huge Oil executives accountable for value gouging customers on the pump, the committee might be dominated by the pursuits of extractive industries, enabling them to push payments that stymie value controls, and clear the best way for multibillion greenback companies to use the American individuals’s land for personal acquire,” Schreiber added.
Along with highlighting the cash that the lawmakers have taken from the fossil gas {industry}, the brand new report notes related actions and remarks, from Graves describing President Joe Biden’s local weather plan as “ushering in a Soviet-style state” to Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming evaluating conservation efforts to dictators ravenous and killing individuals, claiming that “it’s about controlling individuals by means of controlling the meals provide.”
