This is par for the course. So far this election season, fossil fuel groups have spent more than $153 million — to  get pro-fossil fuel policies in place. In 2011, 90 percent of campaign contributions went to the GOP, and 10 percent to Democrats. The biggest spenders were Shell ($25.7 million), Exxon ($25.4 million), and ConocoPhillips ($22.9 million). The five companies’ oil PACs have donated over $2.16 million this election cycle. Koch Industries also spends big money to pressure Congress, with $16.2 million on lobbying and more than $1.3 million from its PAC (the top oil and gas spender).

*** You can help fight the influence of polluters in our political system.  Click here to find out how. ***

The undue influence was the subject of a recent NWF Campus Ecology report that concludes polluters are determined to get their anti-conservation agenda passed into law, and roll back critical regulatory protections.

Not only is this money fueling political campaigns, it is behind many of the shadowy attack ads and television spots that rail against environmental protections, undermine clean energy and promote more coal, gas and oil, ads sponsored by entities with innocuous-sounding names like Patriotic Americans for Clean Energy.

image courtesy ph2dot1.com

The American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s trade group (no, not an “institute”), is the biggest dirty energy spender at $37 million so far with its “I’m an energy voter” ads, complaining about efforts this year (that NWF supports) to repeal wastefuloil industry subsidies.

The True Cost of Dirty Energy

The oil, gas and coal industries are among the most profitable of all businesses. They are peddling fuels that spew carbon pollution that has created a virtual blanket around the planet causing global warming and leading to more severe weather more often, protracted heat waves and drought, more intense hurricanes and floods, sea level rise, crop failures, water shortages and massive wildfires.

Big Influence

The student-aimed NWF guide unmasks the multiple ways that oil, gas and coal companies worm their way into molding public decision-making to pad their pockets. It pinpoints how dirty energy – coal, gas and oil — companies bankroll the campaigns of incumbent Congressional leaders and other candidates by financing political action committees (PACs), super PACs, so-called nonprofit “social welfare groups” and other entities, some without public disclosure. Since 1999, the oil, gas, and coal companies have greased the campaigns of members of Congress to the tune of almost $1 billion dollars.

NWF also fingers 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations that may be more powerful than super PACs because they can accept unlimited amounts of money and hide their donors. These groups can escape the disclosure requirements that apply to candidates, parties and PACs. These shadow groups have outspent super PACs by a three-to-one margin.

This onslaught of dirty energy money has results. NWF points to 109 votes in the House of Representatives since the start of 2011 for policies that enrich the oil and gas industry, including 45 votes to weaken environmental, public health, and safety requirements applicable to oil companies; 38 votes to block or slow deployment of clean energy alternatives and 12 votes to short-circuit environmental review of the dangerous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Reality Check

Money can’t buy you happiness, the old saying goes, but in this year, Big Oil, Big Gas and Big Coal are buying their happiness, at the expense of the people, by outspending, outgunning the rest of us. It’s high stakes for them, but ultimately the stakes are even higher for us, the people who will be stuck breathing dirty air and drinking dirty water if they continue to call the shots.

*** You can help fight the influence of polluters in our political system.  Click here to find out how. ***

Each year EPA’s new air toxic pollution rules will protect wildlife and prevent 11,000 thousand premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, 130,000 cases of childhood asthma and 6,300 cases of acute bronchitis. And it will prevent mercury exposure to children that can adversely affect their developing brains – including effect on their ability to walk, talk, read and learn.

Mercury-laden Fish in Oklahoma Lakes

Interestingly, Senator Inhofe’s homepage features a nice picture of Lake Hefner, Oklahoma.  Not advertised by the Senator’s website is that in July of 2010, a study by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (OK DEQ) found 16 lakes in Oklahoma where some species of fish contain levels of mercury above what is considered safe. As a result, the state governmental agency published its statewide fish consumption advisories to protect Oklahomans from consuming too much mercury –laden fish caught by anglers from the state’s lakes.

An Oklahoma DEQ Slide Show on Mercury provides this advisory:

Mercury Levels in Largemouth Bass Are a Problem Image alabama.gov

Oklahoma Statewide Consumption Advisory for Mercury. In order to protect the most sensitive populations, pregnant or nursing women, women of childbearing age and children younger than 15 years of age are advised to eat no more than one meal per week of predator fish.Predator species of fish in Oklahoma include all species of black bass (largemouth, smallmouth and spotted), striped bass, white bass, hybrid striped bass, walleye, saugeye, and flathead catfish.

As NWF’s Game Changers report has catalogued, the species of concern listed in Oklahoma are iconic to many sportsmen and women across the country and it is why over hundreds of hunter and angler groups from across the country have to written Congress to stop attacks on the Clean Air Act like Senator Inhofe’s new resolution.

Sen. Inhofe Siding with Polluter Money

So why does Senator Inhofe want to allow power plants to spew mercury and toxins into the air without national limits? Like many in Congress, he is choosing to side with polluter money instead of the public.

Oklahoma is home to five coal fired power plants that each generated over 400 MW of power. One such power plant, the Northeastern Plant, is owned by American Electric Power (AEP). In 2010, a report benchmarking power plant air pollution (see page 34) found AEP power plants to be the largest collective source of mercury air pollution among all the nation’s largest utilities.

Between 1998 and 2011, AEP spent over $10M lobbying Congress, including plenty over the last year, to rollback air pollution standards like EPA’s new mercury and air toxic limits.  For his part, Senator Inhofe has received nearly half-million dollars from electric utility industries in campaign contributions (including some from AEP) during his career including a whopping $280K this election cycle.

Stand Up for Limits on Air Pollution

You can help NWF stop this “pay for pollution” game. Tell Congress that you support EPA’s new mercury limits and you want to protect the air we breathe.

Join thousands of NWF supporters in taking action to stop mercury and carbon pollution from power plants smokestacks that harms our nation’s wildlife — from fish to moose to polar bears.

The polluter stranglehold on the House of Representatives continued today.

Power plants are the nation’s single largest source of climate change causing air pollution pumping roughly 2.4B tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year. Setting standards to limit this air pollution are critically needed to tackle the climate crisis and two recent Supreme Court rulings (2007 and 2011) have said the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set these standards.

The new letter, however, continues the 2011 House track record of seeking rollbacks to the Clean Air Act.  It is also another classic example of how big polluters are running Washington.

Here is a quick glance at the big polluter connection to the letters’ three authors – all members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

• Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Chairman, House Energy & Commerce Committee. Top Industry Sector 2012 election cycle supporter: Electric Utilities.
  Among Largest Contributors: Southern Co., DTE Energy.
• Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY), Chair, House Energy & Commerce Cmte., Energy & Power Subcommittee. Top Industry Sector 2012 election cycle supporter: Electric Utilities. Among Largest Contributors: Southern Co.
• Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX). Top Industry Sector 2012 election cycle supporter: Electric Utilities. Among Largest Contributors: American Electric Power.

Of course, EPA’s new database on carbon pollution emissions shows that key contributors Southern Co., DTE Energy and American Electric Power (AEP) own a total of five of the nation’s ten largest carbon polluting power plants.

You can help NWF fight back against the big polluters. Take action now to support the new limits on power plant carbon pollution.

Syncrude Aurora Oil Sands Mine, Canada. (Photo: Peter Essick)

“After delaying the $7 billion project past the November 2012 election, Obama was compelled by Congress to decide by February 21 on whether to approve the pipeline that would sharply boost the flow of oil from Canada’s oil sands.

“Should Obama reject the pipeline, Senate Republicans would look at a bill that would force the go-ahead for work to begin.”

It’s the same story in the House, where Keystone XL backers like Rep. Lee Terry are threatening to push “any and all legislative options.” The message, in plain English: We want the President to make a decision. Unless he disagrees with us. In which case, we’ll make our own decision.

Are Big Oil Profits Shaping Policy?

Now, this news really doesn’t come as a surprise–Obama’s political opponents have used Keystone XL as a cudgel for months now — but it makes it painfully clear, once again, who’s calling the shots in this town. As National Wildlife Federation’s Jeremy Symons puts it:

We have to remember this is about one thing: Big Oil’s profits. These Congressmen are tripping over themselves in the race for campaign contributions, and they know where the money is.

So what’s the going rate for a pro-polluter agenda in Congress? Big Oil’s friends in the House–among them Speaker John Boehner — have reaped over $12 million from the oil & gas industry in just the last 2 years. And according to OpenSecrets.org, the six senators behind the new Keystone bill have accepted more than $3 million in campaign contributions from the oil & gas industry.

Speaker John Boehner seems to have a lot in common with Big Oil honcho Jack Gerard lately. (Photos: Gage Skidmore/Energy Tomorrow)

You can help! Speak up now and tell Obama to stand strong against Big Oil >>