In news that should be shocking to no one, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who recently used a snowball as evidence that climate change isn’t real, recieved thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from senior BP staff, including Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley, The Guardian reported.
Inhofe, one of the Senate’s biggest climate-change deniers and head of the environment and public works committee, received $10,000 from BP’s political action committee (PAC). The PAC is funded by the oil giant’s senior US executives and company staff.
Dudley, who technically resides in Great Britain but can donate because he is a US national, has given $19,000 since June of 2011, just $1,000 short of the legally-allowable $5,000 per year.
According to The Guardian, Inhofe’s re-election campaign last year was a top priority for the BP PAC and he was one of the “top recipients of committee funds when compared with disbursements to other serving senators.”
When asked if it was appropriate for the PAC to donate funds to someone who is such an outspoken opponent of universally accepted climate science, BP said in a statement,
“Voluntary donations [by staff] to the BP employees’ political action committee in the US are used to support a variety of candidates across the political spectrum and in many US geographies where we operate … These candidates have one thing in common: they are important advocates for the energy industry in the broadest sense … BP’s position on climate change is well known and is long-established. We believe that climate change is an important long-term issue that justifies global action.”
BP had no comment on Dudley’s personal contributions.
And while BP claims that its PAC is non-partisan, nearly 70 percent of its contributions in federal elections have gone to Republican candidates.
After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf, BP has tried to make itself seem as though it cares about the environment, a notion completely at odds with the company’s status as one of the main producers of oil and gas. Giving thousands of dollars to politicians who deny climate science proves that they really don’t care about anything but their own profits.
