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Brandon Turbeville
BrandonTurbeville.com
BrandonTurbeville.com
February 26, 2016
Right in line with Hillary Clinton’s support for the Fracking industry comes the funding and support of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign from a number of major oil and gas giants. At least in this instance, there are no surprises.
Many of these corporations are supporting the Clinton campaign through a semi-complicated method known as “bundling,” where agents of the corporation collect money from “private donors” and bundle them into a sizeable donation. It is, in a sense, an effort to skirt laws related to corporate donations to candidates and the limits set on private donations.
As Brandon Jordan writes for Mint Press News,
Lobbyists connected to fossil fuel firms are acting as bundlers for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign based on documents uploaded by journalist Lee Fang.[1]
In a post last month for The Intercept, Fang highlighted how private prison lobbyists were helping raise money for Clinton’s campaign. Interestingly, the documents also highlight lobbyists—who also have gone through the revolving door—working on behalf of oil and gas companies.[2]
. . . . .
Tony Podesta, who lobbied the White House in 2013 to push for liquefied natural gas exports, is one bundler for the campaign. Moreover, he is the brother of John Podesta, a former White House official who recently worked with President Barack Obama on environmental issues. Currently, Podesta chairs Clinton’s presidential campaign.[3]
Ankit Desai, vice president of government relations at Cheniere Energy, also is a registered bundler. Desai is a former government official who worked for then-Senator Joseph Biden and worked on John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.
Cheniere Energy, as noted by Fang and journalist Steve Horn in a report last year, received the first permit by the Obama administration in 2012 to export liquefied natural gas after lobbying White House officials.[4]
Hillary Clinton is no stranger to natural gas. While Secretary of State under the Obama administration, she pushed for shale gas development overseas. Journalist Mariah Blake highlighted such efforts by the State Department in foreign countries for Mother Jones in September:
As part of its expanded energy mandate, the State Department hosted conferences on fracking from Thailand to Botswana. It sent US experts to work alongside foreign officials as they developed shale gas programs. And it arranged for dozens of foreign delegations to visit the United States to attend workshops and meet with industry consultants—as well as with environmental groups, in some cases. [5] [6]
Indeed, we now are able to see many of the surface reasons why Clinton is so amenable to fracking and “gas development” programs domestically and overseas.
Brandon Jordan continues by writing,
Steve Elmendorf is another supporter of Clinton’s campaign. He worked for former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign as well.[7]
Currently, Elmendorf works for Bryan Cave Strategies, who have lobbied for Shell Oil many times.[8] In 2007, Barack Obama criticized the Clinton campaign for relying on Elmendorf to push for a gas tax holiday. He called their efforts a “shell game, literally.”[9]
Theresa Maria Fariello, vice president of government relations at ExxonMobil, is another bundler and also no stranger to the Democratic Party. From 1999 to 2001, she worked as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of International Affairs at the Department of Energy under then-President Bill Clinton’s administration.[10]
While working for ExxonMobil, she lobbied Democratic officials to obtain “political intelligence” and is cited as the “chief-in-house Democrat” of the firm.[11] The Hill, in 2011, named her as one of the top lobbyists in Washington D.C. where she is “fully engaged in the battles over regulations, oil subsidies and deepwater drilling.”[12]
Oil and gas support of Clinton’s campaign should by no means be a surprise to anyone familiar with the Clinton legacy. As mentioned earlier, it was Clinton who took it upon herself to crusade across the world in favor of fracking and “gas development,” meaning privatization, land acquisition, and environmental degradation for shale gas that is clearly not worth the destructive measures needed to extract it.
Like all the administrations before her, Clinton will be the “oil and gas president.” But not from the point of view of the American public who will be suffering under much higher prices of energy due to the obsession with disproven man-made CO2 – based Climate Change theories.
Brandon Turbeville’s new book, The Difference It Makes: 36 Reasons Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President is available in three different formats: Hardcopy (available here), Amazon Kindle for only .99 (available here), and a Free PDF Format (accessible free from his website,BrandonTurbeville.com).
Image Source: Washington Free Beacon
[1] “FEC Form 3L: Report Of Contributions Bundled By Lobbyists/Registrants And Lobbyist/Registrant PACs – Hillary For America. July 1, 2015.” https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2178532-clintonbundlers.html Accessed on September 8, 2015.
[2] Fang, Lee. “Private Prison Lobbyists Are Raising Cash For Hillary Clinton.” The Intercept. July 23, 2015. https://theintercept.com/2015/07/23/private-prison-lobbyists-raising-cash-hillary-clinton/ Accessed on September 8, 2015.
[3] Horn, Steve. “Brother Of Hillary Clinton’s Top Campaign Aide Lobbied For Fracked Gas Export Terminal Co-Owned By Qatar.” Desmog. April 30, 2015. http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/30/hillary-clinton-john-podesta-tony-podesta-lng-export-terminal-qatar Accessed on September 8, 2015.
[4] Fang, Lee; Horn, Steve. “Natural Gas Exports: Washington’s Revolving Door Fuels Climate Threat.” Desmog. http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Natural%20Gas%20Exports-%20Washington%27s%20Revolving%20Door%20Fuels%20Climate%20Threat.pdf Accessed on September 8, 2015.
[5] Blake, Mariah. “How Hillary Clinton’s State Department Sold Fracking To The World.” Mother Jones. September/October 2014. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/hillary-clinton-fracking-shale-state-department-chevron?page=1 Accessed on September 8, 2015.
[6] Jordan, Brandon. “Oil And Gas Lobbyists Support Hillary Clinton’s Campaign.” Mint Press News. August 10, 2015. http://www.mintpressnews.com/MyMPN/oil-and-gas-lobbyists-support-hillary-clintons-campaign/ Accessed on September 8, 2015.
[7] “Elmendorf, Steven.” Open Secrets. https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=26177 Accessed on September 8, 2015.
[8] “Bryan Cave Strategies.” Open Secrets. http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000023036&year=2008 Accessed on September 8, 2015.
[9] Gavrilovic, Maria. “Obama Calls Gas Tax Holiday A ‘Shell Game.’” CBS News. May 3, 2008.
[10] “Fariello, Theresa M.” Open Secrets. http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=70971 Accessed on September 8, 2015.
[11] Dlouhy, Jennifer A. “New Oil Industry Lobbyist Stands Apart From Pack.” Fuel Fix. July 11, 2014. http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/07/11/new-oil-industry-lobbyist-stands-apart-from-pack/ Accessed on September 8, 2015.
[12] Jordan, Brandon. “Oil And Gas Lobbyists Support Hillary Clinton’s Campaign.” Mint Press News. August 10, 2015. http://www.mintpressnews.com/MyMPN/oil-and-gas-lobbyists-support-hillary-clintons-campaign/ Accessed on September 8, 2015.
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