Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) continue to clash over allegations by the Sanders campaign that the Clinton campaign has received substantial funding from the fossil fuel industry.
When a Greenpeace climate activist asked Clinton Thursday if she would pledge to refuse donations from the fossil fuel industry, the front-runner and former secretary of state exclaimed, “I do not have, I have money from people who work for fossil fuel companies. I’m so sick. I’m so sick of the Sanders’ campaign lying about this. I’m sick of it.”
Sanders has stated several times throughout his campaign that Clinton, through a political action committee, has been funded by fossil fuel industry lobbyists. ““We have a corrupt campaign finance system, and instead of standing up to that finance system, Secretary Clinton has [a] super PAC, which is raising huge amounts … of money from Wall Street and from the fossil fuel industry,” Sanders said during a March 6 debate in Flint, Mich. He went on to note, pointedly, “I don’t take money from the fossil fuel industry.”
According to totals from Greenpeace, “Fifty-eight lobbyists that work for the coal, oil and gas companies have given $138,400 directly to the Clinton campaign. Forty-seven of those lobbyists gave the maximum allowable amount — $2,700.” When including direct and bundled donations, a process by which lobbyists use their personal and professional networks to collect additional donations for campaigns, Greenpeace found that “the campaign to elect Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 has received more than $4.5 million from lobbyists, bundlers, and large donors connected the fossil fuel industry.”
According to data from OpenSecrets.org the Clinton campaign has accepted $307,561 from fossil fuel employees. That total includes lobbyists who work directly for fossil fuel companies. The same site found that Sanders has accepted $53,760 from the industry.
The Washington Post and The New York Times have both taken up Sanders’ claims and the totals from Greenpeace, and found them misleading. “Greenpeace counts all of the money raised or contributed by lobbyists as ‘oil/gas industry’ funds, but these lobbyists have many other clients besides the oil industry,” the Post noted. “The Sanders campaign is exaggerating the contributions that Clinton has received from the oil and gas industry. In the context of her overall campaign, the contributions are hardly significant. It’s especially misleading to count all of the funds raised by lobbyists with multiple clients as money “given” by the fossil-fuel industry,” the article concludes.
“I feel sorry, sometimes, for the young people, who, you know, believe this. They don’t do their own research. And I’m glad that we now can point to reliable independent analysis to say, no, it’s just not true,” Clinton said of the controversy Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Sanders had a chance to respond Sunday morning on CNN’s State of the Union. “No, we were not lying. We were telling the truth. And the point here is that climate change is one of the great crises facing this country. We have got to stand up to the fossil fuel industry, transform our energy system, not take money from paid lobbyists from that industry,” Sanders said, referencing the Greenpeace numbers again.
“Let the voters decide whether paid lobbyists who represent the fossil fuel industry, 43 of them give maximum personal contributions to the Clinton campaign, and whether or not these same people are out in some cases muddling, trying to bring in even more money. I don’t think that we are distorting reality. That’s the simple reality,” Sanders said.
