New York Gov. Cuomo Pushes Environmental Protections While Accepting Oil and Gas Donations

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Byย Josefa Velasquezย and Alex Kotch. This post originally appeared on Medium.

Challenger Cynthia Nixon recently unveiled an ambitious climate platform and promised to reject fossil fuel campaignย donations.

As New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo seeks to bolster his environmental platform amid a contentious primary race, campaign finance records show that the Democratic governor has taken in more than $100,000 from the oil and gas industry during this electionย cycle.

On Monday, days after Cynthia Nixonโ€Š โ€” โ€Šthe Sex and the City actress challenging Cuomo from the leftโ€Š โ€”โ€Š announced she would beย rejecting campaign contributionsย from the oil, gas and coal industries, the two-term governor declared that he plans to push for legislationย banning single-use plastic bags,ย an apparent shift from February 2017, when Cuomo blocked New York Cityโ€™s efforts to impose a 5-cent fee on plasticย bags.

Since Nixon entered the race in March, Cuomo has been quick to embrace issues he had previously critiqued like regulating plastic bags and legalizingย recreationalย marijuana.

As Cuomo and Nixon vie for support ahead of Septemberโ€™s Democratic primary, both are attempting to appeal to the left flank of the party. Nixon received the small but influential endorsement of the left-leaning Working Families Party and later unveiled her environmental platform, which is scant on specifics but includes transitioning the state to 100 percent renewable energy, divesting from fossil fuels and putting โ€œan end to the influence of corporate polluters on our energy policy.โ€ Meanwhile, Cuomoโ€™s campaign has benefited from donations linked to the fossil fuelย industry.

The Democratic governorโ€™s campaign,ย which had $30.5 million on hand in mid-January, has received nearly $113,000 from oil and gas companies, businesses that work extensively with the industry, and executives of natural gas utility giant Con Edison, according to campaign finance reports covering contributions from 2015 through Januaryย 12.

The companies include Amoco, originally named Standard Oil Company; Virginia-based Dominion Energy; JK Petroleum; rail company Genesee & Wyoming,ย and oil and gas storage and distribution company Global Partners. Another donor isย STV, an engineering company that provides services to oil and gas facilities and transportation companies including Buckeye Partners, a Texas-based business that owns and operatesย oil and gas pipelines and terminalsย in central and western Newย York.

During the governorโ€™s first term, oil transport rail companies revved up their lobbying, and these companies gained permission from the state toย increase crude oil shipmentsย that traveled through New York, including Buckeye Partners. Another company with oil-by-rail interests, Global Partners,* scored deals under Cuomo in 2012, but after a rail explosionย in Lac-Mรฉgantic,ย Canada, left 47 people dead, the state tightened its inspections of Global Partnersย operations.

More recently, as gas prices have fallen, crude oil transportation through New York has slowed. However, if prices increase, rail transport could follow suit. Global Partners spent $306,000 on state lobbying from 2015 to 2017, and a subsidiary contributed $5,000 to the Cuomo campaign in May 2017. Genesee & Wyoming and two subsidiaries donated to Cuomo as recently as October of lastย year.

The Nixon campaign said on Thursday that it isnโ€™t accepting campaign contributions from any corporation, including fossil fuel companies or shale transportation businesses. A spokeswoman for Nixon did not reply to request for comment on whether Nixonโ€™s campaign will accept contributions from individuals with ties to the oil and gas industry. Financial disclosures with the stateโ€™s Board of Elections covering campaign activity for the previous six months wonโ€™t be released untilย mid-July.

In December, Cuomo said he would push for the state pension fund toย divest from fossil fuel companiesย as part of his 2018 legislative agenda. The New York pension fund is one of the largest in the country, valued at $209.1 billion and covering roughly one million current and retired public employees. Of that amount, an estimated more than $4.4 billion, or roughly 2 percent, is invested in top fossil fuel companies, according to State Comptroller Tom DiNapoliโ€™sย office.

A spokeswoman for the Cuomo campaign did not reply by Friday to a request for comment on whether the governor has received any donations from the fossil fuel industry or individuals connected to the industry since he announced his divestment planย proposal.

Campaign finance records show that several days before Cuomo announced his divestment proposal, STV donated $25,000 to the governorโ€™s reelection campaign through severalย subsidiaries.

Below is a table detailing the fossil fuel-connection donations to Cuomoโ€™s 2018 gubernatorialย campaign.

Oil and gas-linked donations to Gov. Cuomo campaign, 2015-2017

*Note from theย  editor, 4/29/2018: Updates were made to more accurately reflect Global Partners’ย services.

Note: If you appreciate this type of research and reporting, please consider joining the email list for our new project, Sludge.ย Sign up here to get our newsletter.

Sludge will investigate the shadowy ways that special interests have captured Americaโ€™s political system, revealing hidden networks and conflicts of interest. It is part of Civilโ€™s โ€œFirst Fleetโ€ of newsrooms. Itโ€™s launchingย soon!

Main image:ย Gov. Cuomo & Chairman Prendergast Ride E Train in 2014. Credit:ย Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit,ย CC BYย 2.0

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Alex Kotch is an independent investigative journalist based in Brooklyn, NY. His stories about politics, the environment, education and social justice have appeared at AlterNet, DeSmogBlog, Salon, The American Prospect, BillMoyers.com, Truthout, Truthdig, Raw Story, National Memo, Facing South, EcoWatch, Vocativ and The Brooklyn Rail. He has made TV and radio appearances on RT, The Thom Hartmann Show, The Real News Network, Time Warner Cable News and Georgia Public Broadcasting. His research and reporting have been featured in The New York Times, Esquire, The Atlantic, National Journal, Jacobin, Media Matters, and Harvard Political Review, among othersย publications.

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