Big oil remembers 'friend' Trump with millions in campaign funds

[chuckChuck]

You gotta love american "democracy"!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/09/big-oil-trump-campaign-donations-fossil-fuel-industry https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/09/big-oil-trump-campaign-donations-fossil-fuel-industry

Donations to support the president’s re-election have flooded in from a fossil fuel industry that has enjoyed three years of energy deregulation and tax cuts

In mid-June the oil pipeline billionaire Kelcy Warren hosted a fundraising bash at his palatial Dallas, Texas, home that drew the presence of Donald Trump and raised $10m for the US president’s campaign coffers.

Warren’s fundraising gusher for Trump occurred after he and his wife had donated a hefty $1.7m since 2019 to Trump Victory, a fundraising vehicle for Trump’s re-election and the Republican National Committee, according to the non-partisan Open Secrets group.

All this campaign largesse comes after Warren’s company Energy Transfer notched a major win soon after Trump took office, winning regulatory approval to move ahead with the controversial and legally embattled Dakota Access pipeline.

The Dallas billionaire’s ties with Trump were boosted when Trump in 2017 tapped Rick Perry to be energy secretary; a former Texas governor, Perry sat on the board of an Energy Transfer subsidiary before his energy post, and afterwards in early 2020 joined another Energy Transfer board.

Warren’s fundraising skills, personal checks and access to top officials, underscore how fossil fuel billionaires and other energy moguls from Texas to New York to Oklahoma, have opened their wallets wide and raised cash to re-elect Trump, after three-plus years of enjoying Trump’s sweeping energy deregulation and tax cuts.

Since Trump took office his favorite Super Pac, America First Action, has raked in millions of fossil fuel dollars. The Super Pac has received $1m from the shale oil billionaire Harold Hamm and his company Continental Resources, and another $1m from the coal mogul Robert Murray, who runs the eponymous Murray Energy, according to Open Secrets.

The Super Pac has also pulled in $500,000 from the coal billionaire Joe Craft of Alliance Resource Partners, $750,000 from the Texas oilman Syed Javaid Anwar of Midland Energy, and $500,000 from John Catsimatidis, a top investor in United Refining Co, as Open Secrets and news reports show.

Moreover, Trump tried to reassure his fossil fuel friends of his support in early April when the pandemic was causing them economic pain. Trump huddled at the White House with a select group of industry moguls including Hamm, Warren and the Texas oilman Jeff Hildebrand to solicit ideas for new federal relief.

Afterwards, Trump pledged he would “make funds available to these very important companies”.

Like Warren and Hamm, Hildebrand has given big bucks to help Trump. Hildebrand, who runs the Hilcorp Oil, and his wife have given $775,000 to the Trump campaign and allied committees since 2017, campaign records show.

Energy analysts see ample reasons why fossil fuel honchos have been staunch Trump donors.

“The fossil fuel industry and its leaders will continue to support Donald Trump because he will do anything he can to continue fossil fuel dominance of the American energy sector,” said David Bookbinder, the general counsel for the non-partisan Niskanen Center, which has advocated for more alternative fuels.

To be sure, were the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, to win the presidency it would be a sharp break with Trump’s pro-fossil fuels agenda. Biden has endorsed a $2tn green energy plan and has indicated he would roll back many of Trump’s regulatory breaks for fossil fuel companies.

Biden also has championed the Paris climate agreement of 2015 that aims to fight global warming by curbing fossil fuel emissions more aggressively. But Trump, who has called manmade climate change a “hoax”, denounced the accord as a “total disaster” for US competitiveness and withdrew the US from the agreement effective 4 November, the day after the election.
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Biden has pledged that if he is elected, the US would rejoin.

Little wonder that Trump Victory, the joint fundraising committee of Trump’s campaign and the RNC, has raked in $9.3m from fossil fuel donors in 2019-2020, while its counterpart Biden Victory has raised a meager $40,465 from fossil fuel donors in the same period, according to Open Secrets.

Still, Biden’s consistent lead in recent national polls coupled with Trump’s fears of losing any more ground to the challenger have kept him pressing fossil fuel allies for more funds, and reassuring them with new initiatives.

On 29 July, Trump returned to Texas for more fundraisers in the fracking stronghold of Odessa which reportedly was expected to haul in $7m for Trump Victory.

Trump’s visit also showcased his oil industry bona fides by visiting and getting a photo op with two CEOs at a leading fracking company, Double Eagle Energy Oil Rig, in Midland where he enthused there were “a lot of big beautiful rights behind me”.

Trump’s latest Texas swing underscored its status as a must-win state that went heavily for Trump in 2016 but where some recent polls have shown him in a tight race with Biden.

Trump also let his Texas supporters talk policy in a more intimate setting: for $100,000 donors could join a roundtable policy discussion with Trump, and two top cabinet officials from energy and interior.

But perhaps to ensure that his fealty to fossil fuels can’t be doubted, Trump in mid-July announced major changes to the landmark National Environmental Policy Act to help speed up reviews for large pipeline and infrastructure projects.

Bill Miller, a major industry lobbyist and consultant in Austin, told the Associated Press that while many fossil fuel companies were hurt by the pandemic, parts of the industry had begun to recover. “It’s the kind of industry that remembers their friends through thick and thin, and Trump is their friend.”

[jazz]

You gotta love american "democracy"!

That's great to hear. I am going to donate my carbon refund to trump too.

Bidens campaign is funded by lawless Marxist radicals burning cities.

[furrowtickler]

Who’s funding Trudeau and his buddies ?? 🤔
Yup Irving and Saudi money .... no different , ohhhh with a splash from Soros and friends .
What a game ..... they all have their buddies chuck .. don’t kid yourself.
Focus your attention on Canada ... you may actually surprise yourself what you find

[ajl]

That's great to hear. I am going to donate my carbon refund to trump too.

Bidens campaign is funded by lawless Marxist radicals burning cities.

Or Trudope's campaign funded by taxpayers through fake charity scams.

[malleefarmer]

Susan Rice, a top contender in the race to become Joe Biden's running mate, is under increased scrutiny from progressives for her deep financial ties to the Keystone Pipeline and other fossil fuel and energy companies.

Rice, the former national security adviser to President Barack Obama, had investments in at least five such companies, including as much as $100,000 in TransCanada, the company that owned the controversial Keystone Pipeline, according to her last public financial disclosure form.


She also listed more than $1 million invested in the Candian pipeline firm Enbridge and more than $2 million divided between three oil companies that have been active in the oil sands of northern Alberta: Cenovus Energy, Imperial Oil and Encana Corp. (rebranded earlier this year as Ovintiv Inc.).

[malleefarmer]

As they say in chess perhaps glen “checkmate”

[furrowtickler]

Chuck is like a small annoying dog that constantly just barks . Harmless but can drive ya nuts at times .

[chuckChuck]

It isn't a democracy when the the biggest corporate donors get rewarded for their campaign donations with policies that favour them. It's a form of corruption.

I am not surprised that some posters think it is okay to let the richest and most powerfull have more influence than the average voter if they agree with their political views.

Canada has very restrictive campaign finance regulations:

Summary

Contribution and spending limits are regulated by the Canada Elections Act. The Law places limits on contributions to political parties and political candidates. Only individuals or natural persons (not corporations or trade unions) who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents may make contributions. Election expenses are subject to limits for candidates and registered political parties. These limits are calculated according to a formula based on the number of names on the preliminary or revised lists of electors for each electoral district, and on the length of the election period. Candidates and parties may be able to claim publicly-funded reimbursements for some of their election expenses.

Under the Canada Elections Act, only certain networks (not all broadcasters) are required to allocate free time to political parties. Two minutes are allocated to each registered and newly eligible party that did not want any paid broadcasting time, and the remainder of free time is allocated among political parties proportionally to their paid-time allocation. The minimum amount of broadcasting time that a network operator makes available cannot be less than the amount of free broadcasting time that it made available during the last general election.

[chuckChuck]

Chuck is like a small annoying dog that constantly just barks . Harmless but can drive ya nuts at times .

You would be happy if the "little dog" agreed with you! LOL

[Braveheart]

Big oil cuddling up with Trump has really hurt ag. The Small Refiners Exemptions are being abused by everyone leaving ethanol producers struggling and corn prices to producers on the defensive. Trump gives lip service to farm states but is really screwing them. The trouble is, what's the alternative? Dinosaur Joe Biden? Not likely. Hillary is too busy helping pedophiles commit "suicide". US ag better buckle up and get comfortable with Trump subsidies.

[jimmy]

Planned parenthood is funded by the taxpayers and in turn they donate 40 million to the democrats. Nothing to see here.

[chuckChuck]

Good points Braveheart. It's just politics right! LOL. Trump subsidizes US farmers to get their votes. Its a pretty simple political calculation. And some Canadian farmers are disappointed we don't match Trump's subsidies and play their political games.

[chuckChuck]

Planned parenthood is funded by the taxpayers and in turn they donate 40 million to the democrats. Nothing to see here.

Show us the evidence for that.

Republicans attack planned parenthood because some "christian fundamentalists" want to impose their narrow extreme christian beliefs on everyone. But then they go on to support pedophiles like judge Roy Moore for the senate. Yup, Christian family values at work! LOL

[Hamloc]

Show us the evidence for that.

Republicans attack planned parenthood because some "christian fundamentalists" want to impose their narrow extreme christian beliefs on everyone. But then they go on to support pedophiles like judge Roy Moore for the senate. Yup, Christian family values at work! LOL

CNBC.com/2020/01/16/planned-parenthood-will-spend-45-million-in-2020-elections.html.

[ajl]

CNBC.com/2020/01/16/planned-parenthood-will-spend-45-million-in-2020-elections.html.

Lol. Evidence chuck is wrong pretty much all the time is everywhere so I mostly skip his posts.