Polluters Pour Millions Into November Elections

Yesterday here at Wildlife Promise, we detailed how polluters have spent more than $200 million on lobbying already this year, trying to block any effort to limit global warming pollution. A reader wrote in to ask how much polluters are giving directly to politicians in this year’s midterm elections.

Courtesy of OpenSecrets.org, we can see polluters have already given more than $27 million to candidates for office this fall:

• Oil & Gas Industry: $13,036,908
• Electric Utilities: $12,173,516
• Coal Mining: $1,900,528

Polluters still have another 7 weeks before the November elections to add to these staggering totals. For comparison’s sake:

• Conservation Groups: $1,210,401
• Alternative Energy Industry: $704,481

Political scientists often mention a chicken-or-the-egg question when it comes to donations — do politicians support industry positions because those industries donate to them? Or do industries donate to politicians who are already supportive of their positions? Big polluters seem to have their bases covered no matter what.