Even as Greta Thunberg met with lawmakers on September 18 and 18, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, was hosting fundraisers with oil and gas lobbyists to raise cash for the Scalise Leadership Fund.
The fund is a political action committee that doles out cash to the party in key battleground states across the country and for the fossil fuel industry, they willingly part with big handfuls of cash to keep the lawmakers on their side, according to The Intercept, which documented the invites.
The Wednesday afternoon event with Scalise was hosted by the BGR Group, a lobbying firm that represents Chevron, Southern Company, and Petroceltic International, among other fossil fuel interests. On Thursday, Scalise hosted an event called an “Oil & Gas Industry Dinner,” charging up to $5,000 to attend the event as a host.
The big gas debate begins on Monday
Actually, fossil fuel interests are a major source of fundraising for lawmakers of both political parties, although there are now closer ties with Republican lawmakers. Then we have the “dark money” groups, like Koch Industries, which spends millions of dollars to support GOP lawmakers.
The point is this – Oil and gas companies are very concerned over the way the climate crisis has taken hold of the news cycle and become a major story across the globe. There is so much concern that while the UN Climate Conference is being held this week in New York that the Petroleum industry is taking the offensive and holding their own event.
CEOs of the world’s largest oil companies are expected to speak at an event organized by the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative where they’ll likely defend the idea that gas is integral to a low-carbon future.
Less than one week to go until the CEOs of our members companies meet with ministers, business leaders and academics in New York for our fifth annual stakeholder dialogue event: Scaling Up Action – Aiming for Net Zero Emissions! Follow #OGCI for updates #ClimateWeekNYC pic.twitter.com/v11ljKcivO
— OGCI (@OGCInews) September 17, 2019
The oil and gas industry contends there are good reasons to use natural gas, a fossil fuel. The industry argues that natural gas is killing coal, a very dirty fossil fuel. They also argue that gas keeps greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions down, contending that with cleaner electricity generation using gas, the economy can still grow.
The industry’s biggest selling point for natural gas is its affordability – citing fracking as the technology that has made natural gas so abundant and cheap at the local level, they have to export the excess.
To be honest, we have heard and read all the reasons why natural gas is not the solution to a cleaner environment, and that is where the debate will end up being decided at the UN Climate Conference, where the issue of climate change is at front and center as world leaders gather for the annual meeting.
Young climate activists around the world, fearful of what is happening to our planet, have voiced their concerns to the world, and they are now demanding that the rest of us do something about the mess we are living in today.
“Young people from different parts of the world are living in constant fear and climate anxiety, fearing the future, the uncertainty of a healthy life or a life for their children at all,” said Fiji climate activist Komal Karishma Kumar at a gathering Saturday at the UN.
“Stop the criminal contaminant behavior of big corporations,” said Argentine climate activist Bruno Rodriguez. “Enough is enough. We don’t want fossil fuels anymore.”
