Big Oil’s Senators Do What They’re Paid To Do

In a development that will shock few, but should be known by more, some of Big Oil’s biggest friends in the Senate weighed in with President Obama last week on the Keystone XL pipeline.  The bipartisan group of eighteen Senators sent a letter to the President urging him to approve the project (apparently not caring that the environmental review process is still far from complete).

This group of eighteen Senators, not surprisingly, has taken on average, roughly twice as much money over their careers from fossil fuel interests as has the rest of the Senate.  This is all the more surprising when you realize that some of the biggest industry allies such as Texas Senator John  Cornyn or Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe did not sign this letter (although both clearly support the pipeline).

The details below are from from Oil Change International’s Dirty Energy Money database which purchases Center for Responsive Politics data that is further analyzed to give a true picture of fossil fuel industry influence.

Total lifetime oil, gas and coal $$ to the 18: 11,206,313
Lifetime Average of the 18: $622,572.94
Lifetime Average of the Rest of Senate: $326,807

Senator           Party           State        Lifetime Fossil $$