President Joe Biden signed a January 27, 2021 executive order temporarily pausing new oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands and waters. Credit: Citizens of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group /Getty

Dozens of Republican lawmakers who oppose President Joe Biden’s executive order temporarily halting new oil and gas leasing on federal lands have taken tens of millions of dollars in career campaign contributions from fossil fuel, energy, and natural resources industry interests, a report published Wednesday revealed. 

“Oil and gas CEOs and their political allies on Capitol Hill are doing whatever they can to prop up a system that allows them to exploit public lands at low costs and boost their profits.”
—Alan Zibel, 
Public Citizen

The Public Citizen report—entitled Big Oil’s Capitol Hill Allies (pdf)examines fossil fuel industry and other polluters’ campaign contributions to the 29 GOP lawmakers from the 70-member Congressional Western Caucus who issued a January 27 statement denouncing an order signed the previous day by Biden pausing new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and in offshore waters pending further review. 

While climate campaigners and environmental activists praised Biden—and also pushed him […]

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