When the gulf oil disaster occurred a few months ago, Republicans were quick to jump to the defense of BP and the other oil companies. Two of the biggest defenders were Texans. Senator John Cornyn backed up the Texas governor on his "accidents will happen" nonsense and fought every effort to make BP and Big Oil more responsible. Rep. Joe Barton was even worse -- apologizing to BP for President Obama's efforts to make them pay for the damage they had caused.
It should come as no surprise then that Cornyn and Barton lead all members of Congress in donations from big energy companies (and a third Texan, Kay Bailey Hutchison, is in the top six). Here are the six members of Congress receiving the most money from energy giants (mostly oil and coal companies) and the amount of money they have received:
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)..........$1,863,310
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas)..........$1,707,173
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)..........$1,147,558
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma)..........$1,123,006
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Virginia)..........$1,094,811
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)..........$1,004,514
Our Republican U.S. Representative here in the Panhandle, Mac Thornberry, has also been grabbing as much oil and coal money as he can also. Thornberry, who has one of the safest Republican seats in the nation (since he doesn't even have a Democratic opponent this year), has received $265,800 rom the energy companies -- 84% of it from oil companies and 16% from coal companies.
If you'd like to know how much money your own senator or representative has taken from the energy companies you can go to this site and just type in your zip code in the search box at the top of the page. You might be surprised (and horrified) at the amount -- especially if you are represented by a Republican.
Here are the top six energy companies donating to politicians and the amount they have given:
1. Koch Industries (oil)..........$4,382,491
2. Southern Company (coal)..........$4,057,724
3. Exxon Mobil (oil)..........$3,947,840
4. American Electric Power (coal)..........$2,724,662
5. Valero Energy (oil)..........$2,477,100
6. Chevron Corporation (oil)..........$2,460,946
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