Republicans who backed Trump's anti-environment bill have accepted over $105m from big oil

The Guardian

2 days ago

The Republican lawmakers who voted for Donald Trump's anti-environment tax and spending bill have accepted more than $105m in political donations from the fossil fuel industry, a new analysis has found, raising concerns about their relationship with big oil.
Signed into law last month, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes billions of dollars in giveaways to oil and gas companies and their executives, alongside provisions to scale back credits for clean vehicles, wind and solar which were enshrined by Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
All but two GOP House members voted to support the budget bill, as did all but three GOP senators. That includes many Republicans from districts who benefited most from the IRA's green credits, and those who spent months attempting to defend renewable energy tax credits from the budget bill's provisions, such as Representative Andrew Garbarino of New York and Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Curtis of Utah.
The new report from the environmental advocacy group Climate Power totalled up the funds the bill's backers have accepted from the fossil fuel industry over the course of their political careers, finding that House members accepted $54.4m and senators accepted $51.5m.
'These Republicans in Congress are caught red-handed taking massive donations from the oil and gas industry, and voting to give them billions and to destroy their competition from their own state's clean energy industries,' the analysis says.
With House midterm elections scheduled for next year, Climate Power also looked at fossil fuel donations to the 15 House Republicans deemed most vulnerable to an electoral challenge, according to the Cook Political Report, which independently analyzes the political viability of elections and campaigns. All 15 backed the mega-bill, and together, they accepted more than $3m in donations from the fossil fuel industry, the authors found.
Hailing from Colorado, Iowa, Arizona, New Jersey, California, Michigan and New York, the lawmakers on the list are from regions that have seen benefits from the IRA's credits for wind and solar energy, as well as battery manufacturing. The mega-bill puts more than 110,000 jobs from the three sectors at risk in the 15 lawmakers' districts, and is also expected to raise consumers' energy bills by up to $200 annually by 2030, according to the climate policy thinktank Energy Innovation.
Some on the list had previously critiqued the bill: Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, who has accepted $229,179 in oil and gas contributions, pledged to support clean energy tax credits but backed the legislation anyway, while Colorado's Jeff Hurd, pledged to oppose the bill due to its cuts to Medicaid but ended up supporting it.
'These Republican members of Congress all represent moderate swing districts with close elections, where voters of both parties expect their representatives to look out for them, not to kill their jobs and raise their utility bills for the sake of out-of-state special interests,' said Pete Jones, a director at Climate Power. 'These members chose who to stand up for, and they picked their billionaire donors.'
Big oil spent a stunning $445m throughout the last election cycle to influence Trump and Congress, Climate Power found in January. The industry also poured more than $19m into Trump's inaugural fund, accounting for nearly 8% of all donations it raised, a report found last month.
'We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it,' Trump said in his inaugural address.
Since re-entering the White House, Trump has passed not only the anti-environmental One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but has also signed a slew of executive orders and policies aimed at cracking down on clean energy and boosting already-booming oil and gas.