Jeff Stein · Wednesday, January 18, 2017, 2:52 pm
Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions from some of America’s biggest oil companies — and on Wednesday, Senate Democrats seized the spotlight to point it out.
At the confirmation hearing for EPA nominee Scott Pruitt, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse pointed to a large blue cardboard sign held by a staffer. It illustrated the ties between fossil fuel companies and political organizations run by Pruitt, who is currently the attorney general of Oklahoma.
As the Washington Post reported in December, the energy sector donated nearly half of the contributions received by Liberty 2.0, a Super PAC run by Pruitt. The fossil fuel companies Pruitt will soon be responsible for regulating also gave more than $318,000 to his reelection campaign for attorney general, according to OpenSecrets.org.
Whitehouse pressed these points at Wednesday’s Senate Environment and Public Works committee hearing. Initially, Pruitt, who plans to be an ally of oil and gas by dismantling much of Obama’s environmental legacy, deflected Whitehouse’s questions, before acknowledging that he had been at fundraisers with Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries.
Here’s their exchange:
[...]
There’s something a little rich about Democrats complaining so loudly about the role of money in the political system. After all, Hillary Clinton took more than $300,000 from those in the oil and gas industry — and the Democratic Party has taken millions from lobbyists and corporate interests.
Read more
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/18/14311518/trump-epa-nominee
This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
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