The Democratic Party’s 2016 platform may take a strong stance against fossil fuels, but the committee hosting the Democratic National Convention (DNC) has no problem taking money from the petroleum industry to pay for its presidential convention.
The non-profit DNC Host Committee responsible for raising money to pay for the convention in Philadelphia lists oil companies and lobbyists as supporters on its website. The Host Committee lists Chevron, Sunoco and Vote4Energy.org, an industry-backed advocacy group.
What’s odd is the DNC is taking money from oil interests even though the Democratic platform calls for using fewer fossil fuels and more green energy. It backs investigating fossil fuel companies questioning the “scientific reality of climate change.”
The “most progressive platform in party history” also calls for eliminating “special tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuel companies” and putting a price on “carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases” from fossil fuels.
The Democratic platform takes a hard stance against oil and gas drilling. The party calls for “closing the Halliburton loophole that stripped the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its ability to regulate hydraulic fracturing.”
“We believe hydraulic fracturing should not take place where states and local communities oppose it,” reads the platform. “We will reduce methane emissions from all oil and gas production and transportation by at least 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 through common-sense standards.”
Democrats have echoed calls from hardcore environmentalists to investigate energy companies that disagree with them on global warming. The platform asks “the Department of Justice to investigate allegations of corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies accused of misleading shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change.”
Despite the platform’s rejection of fossil fuels, the DNC is reportedly filled with oil industry ads — something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by environmental activists.
Activists with the group Climate Hawksstarted a petition to boycott events hosted by Politico and The Atlantic that were sponsored by the oil industry. Climate Hawks wrote “to participate in a Big Oil propaganda event during the DNC – is a unseemly grant of social license to this web of deception.”
The DNC Host Committee taking money from the oil industry shouldn’t be surprising, since Pennsylvania is the second-largest natural gas producing state.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been heavily criticized by activists for taking money from the oil industry and the leaders of petro-states. A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found the Clinton Foundation, which is run by Clinton and her husband former President Bill Clinton, took $100 million from Persian Gulf sheikhs.
Major oil companies ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have given to the Clinton Foundation, according to the International Business Times.
Clintonpromoted hydraulic fracturing for natural gas abroad while heading the Department of State. She has since reversed her position on fracking and said she would largely ban the practice.
It’s not clear how much money the Host Committee raised from the oil industry, or any other company for that matter, since a Pennsylvania judge recently ruled the list of donors to the convention doesn’t immediately need to be released.
Democrats set a fundraising goal of $60 million for the 2016 convention, and secured a $15 million line of credit from Philadelphia taxpayers as a safety net in case it couldn’t get enough private donations.
The Host Committee told The Associated Press it raised $56 million in cash and pledges, along with $16 million from in-kind contributions.
“The host committee’s fundraising has been on track and, moreover, successful, with no city dollars spent to cover any of our obligations,” Anna Adams-Sarthou, the Host Committee’s spokeswoman, told AP.
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