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Oil and gas companies invest in legislators that vote against the environment

Oil and gas companies invest in legislators that vote against the environment

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new research article, “Oil and gas companies invest in legislators that vote against the environment” in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Oil and gas companies have a long history of misleading the public on environmental issues. However, when it comes to the United States Congress, it is unclear whether oil and gas companies contribute money to candidates in order to influence their votes or, rather, invest in candidates that have an anti-environmental voting record. In our new article, we investigate this question using 28 years of campaign contribution data.

We match campaign contribution data from oil and gas companies to legislators’ voting records on environmental issues as measured by the League of Conservation Voters and examine evidence for the influence hypothesis, investment hypothesis, or both. The results strongly support the investment hypothesis: the more a legislator votes against bills to protect the environment, the more money they later receive from oil and gas companies supporting their reelection. For example, a 10% decrease in voting for environmental legislation in 2014 predicted an additional $5,400 in campaign contributions from oil and gas companies in 2016.

The full article is open access and includes much more detail on our findings.