As climate change unleashed blistering heat, toxic air quality, and deadly floods on millions of Americans this year, congressional Republicans’ two super PACs raked in nearly $4 million from fossil fuel donors, according to new federal election filings reviewed by The Lever.
As the donations poured in, Republican lawmakers began adding the fine print to congressional spending bills that would hobble the federal government’s efforts to combat climate change.
Oil and gas companies were among the corporate interests that continued giving generously to the GOP’s House fundraising arm even after members it backed voted to overturn the 2020 election results, as The Lever reported previously.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, which backs GOP House candidates, reported receiving more than $950,000 from oil and gas firms and executives during the year’s first half. The donors included top executives at the firms’ Energy Transfer Partners, United Refining, and Midland Energy, whose CEO, Syed Javaid Anwar, contributed $125,000.
In total, the Congressional Leadership Fund has hauled in more than $19 million so far this year. The group’s communications director boasted this month that the combined haul with its dark money arm, the American Action Network, is significantly outpacing GOP fundraising at this point in the last election cycle.
Individual 2022 Oil & Gas Recipients (donations took place during the 2021-2022 election cycle and were released by the Federal Election Commission on Monday, March 20, 2023) as reported by https://www.opensecrets.org/
| Rank | Candidate | Office | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchin, Joe (D-WV) | Senate | $768,859 |
| 2 | McCarthy, Kevin (R-CA) | House | $648,161 |
| 3 | Pfluger, August (R-TX) | House | $586,276 |
| 4 | Lankford, James (R-OK) | Senate | $441,046 |
| 5 | Hunt, Wesley (R-TX) | House | $424,345 |
| 6 | Murkowski, Lisa (R-AK) | Senate | $412,351 |
| 7 | Scalise, Steve (R-LA) | House | $379,676 |
| 8 | Walker, Herschel (R-GA) | $359,801 | |
| 9 | Cuellar, Henry (D-TX) | House | $355,692 |
| 10 | Mullin, Markwayne (R-OK) | Senate | $348,890 |
| 11 | Laxalt, Adam (R-NV) | $335,194 | |
| 12 | Johnson, Ron (R-WI) | Senate | $310,953 |
| 13 | Fletcher, Lizzie (D-TX) | House | $308,020 |
| 14 | Kennedy, John (R-LA) | Senate | $305,829 |
| 15 | Rodgers, Cathy McMorris (R-WA) | House | $305,117 |
| 16 | Scott, Tim (R-SC) | Senate | $300,484 |
| 17 | Oz, Mehmet (R-PA) | $298,147 | |
| 18 | Crenshaw, Dan (R-TX) | House | $296,267 |
| 19 | Vance, J D (R-OH) | Senate | $285,822 |
| 20 | Hoeven, John (R-ND) | Senate | $281,723 |
