On Monday, Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Matt Cartwright (D-PA), and Mike Levin (D-CA) led roughly 80% of the House Democratic caucus, according to Politico's Anthony Adragna, in signing a letter addressed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), urging them to take action to help the clean energy industry that has suffered due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The letter is attatched in the following tweet:
In response, RL Miller, the co-founder and chairwoman of environmental advocacy group Climate Hawks Vote, tweeted a thread criticizing the 45 House Democrats who did not sign onto the letter:
Towards the end of her thread, Miller says that there are "lots of potential reasons for not signing on to a letter, of course. Staff overlooked it. Leadership won't commit." However, a potential reason she does not mention is the influence of fossil fuel money on these representatives. Below is a list of how much PAC money each of them have taken from the oil and gas industry during this election cycle (note than an asterisk -- * -- indicates that the representative in question is retiring this election, and the data is from their previous campaign, in 2018):
However, what about the representatives who have not taken oil and gas PAC money throughout their most recent election cycle, but still have not signed the letter? Well, several of them have taken money from leadership PACs that, in turn, have taken PAC money from the industry. For example, AmeriPAC: The Fund for a Greater America, which has taken $5,000 from oil and gas PACs, has also contributed to Reps. Colin Allred (D-TX, $10,000), Madeleine Dean (D-PA, $5,000), Jared Golden (D-ME, $10,000), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA, $5,000), Conor Lamb (D-PA, $10,000), Elaine Luria (D-VA, $10,000), Kweisi Mfume (D-MD, $10,000), and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA, $5,000).
In addition to campaign contributions, some of the representatives who have not signed the letter own assets in the oil and gas industry as of 2018, including Reps. Lois Frankel (D-FL) -- who owns between $4,004 and $60,000 in assets -- and Dean Phillips (D-MN) -- who owns between $15,001 and $50,000. Overall, while Miller's claim that there are many potential explanations for these Democrats not signing the letter is accurate, it appears as if money was a factor for a lot of them in their refusal to do so.
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