Keystone XL Vote Analysis: House Proves Who They Serve

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This is a guest post by Matt Maiorana, cross-posted with permission from Oil Changeย International.ย 

2015 is already bringing new challenges โ€” including a congress thatโ€™s set on ignoring climate science and fighting for the fossil fuel industry instead of the Americanย people.

One of their first acts of business has been an attempt to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, despite President Obama stating that heโ€™ll veto the legislation. This hasnโ€™t stopped pro-oil legislatorsย from pushing the issue forward and itโ€™s clearย why.

We crunched the numbers and found that in todayโ€™s Keystone XL vote, members of the House of Representatives who voted โ€˜yesโ€™ on approving the pipeline took a combined total of over $13 million dollars from the Oil and Gas industry in 2014 ALONE.

Compared to members of the House voting against the pipeline, they took 8.5x more money on average. And this doesnโ€™t even include all the โ€˜dark moneyโ€™ being spent by the fossil fuel industry in the most recentย elections.

house-kxl-vote-2014 v7

Hereโ€™s a breakdown of our calculations.ย These are based on data provided byย The Center for Responsive Politicsย and ourย Dirty Energy Moneyย database:

  • Total oil and gas money received in 2014 election cycle (as reported thus far) by those voting FOR KXL: over $13ย million
  • Total oil and gas money received in 2014 election cycle (as reported thus far) by those voting AGAINST KXL: overย $800,000
  • Average amount PER REP who voted for KXL: nearlyย $50,000
  • Average amount PER REP who voted against KXL: Underย $6,000
  • On average, Reps voting for KXL received over 8.5 times more oil and gas money in the last election cycle than those voting against the KXLย bill.

Thereโ€™s a growing movement rising up to oppose Big Oilโ€™sย stranglehold on Washington, but the fossil fuel industry isnโ€™t going down without a fight. Take action thanking the president for his veto threat and calling on him to reject the pipeline outright:ย http://bitly.com/ObamaNoKXL

ย 

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