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Politics : Bernie Sanders 2016 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Wharf Rat who wrote (640)4/1/2016 8:20:36 PM
From: StockDung  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1844
 
Clinton’s fossil fuel friends: lobbyist bundlers brought in big money

by Alex Glorioso on April 1, 2016 34 mins ago


Last night, a video that captured presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pointing her finger at a climate change activist went viral. What got Clinton’s goat? An insinuation by the Sanders campaign that she accepts money from the fossil fuel industry. The campaigns are now embroiled in a back and forth on how much money Clinton takes from that industry and whether this money would influence her policies were she elected.

We can’t know the answer to the second part but we’ve done some digging to help clarify the first…

While contributions from individuals working for oil and gas interests haven’t contributed that much to her, relatively speaking — the industry doesn’t even make her top 20 — a review by the Center for Responsive Politics of filings by lobbyists who have bundled money for her race reveals that Clinton has taken $1.4 million from lobbyists who represent the industry.

Bundlers are fundraising heavyweights who pledge to bring in a certain amount for the candidate from their personal and professional networks. So far this year, 47 different lobbyists have collected $4.1 million for Clinton’s presidential bid. Over 30 percent of this money — $1.4 million — was raised by 11 different bundlers who represent clients from the oil and gas industry. These clients include major oil companies like Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Marathon Oil. In total, the oil and gas industry has paid $18.6 million to these bundlers to represent their interests in Washington in 2015.

The most lucrative bundler for Clinton has been well-known networker Heather Podesta from the lobbying firm Heather Podesta + Partners. Podesta has raised $379,731 for Clinton’s campaign so far. And while she represents a long list of companies and organization vying for their own special interests, two of them are from oil and gas: Marathon Oil and Oxbow Corp. Together, the companies paid Podesta and her colleagues $220,000 to serve their interests on the federal level.

A big caveat here: Podesta, like some of the other 11 oil and gas lobbyists, represents a slew of other clients as well, so it’s somewhat disingenuous to credit the bundled money to the oil and gas industry. In Podesta’s case, the other clients include three in renewable energy: Brookfield Power, Fuels America and Uranium Producers of America.

But overall, renewable energy interests have paid only $1.5 million – or 8 percent of what oil and gas has — to lobbyists who’ve raised money for Clinton.

And three lobbyists were less conflicted, representing five clients or fewer of which oil and gas were present and renewable energy were not. These lobbysts bundled $298,559 for Clinton.

For a couple lobbyists, the priorities are crystal clear. Ankit N Desai and Theresa Mary Fariello who, together, raised a total of $161,600 for Clinton each had only one client: Cheniere Energy and Exxon Mobil, respectively. Desai and her colleagues were paid $3.4 million from Cheniere and Fariello and her colleagues were paid almost $12 million by Mobil.