DNC Chairman Tom Perez wants “to support fossil fuel workers…” More likely, he needs money for a fiscally challenged political party.

In June of this year, the Democratic National Committee voted to ban its accepting donations from fossil fuel companies.

The resolution ― proposed by Christine Pelosi, a party activist and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter ― bars the organization from accepting contributions from corporate political action committees tied to the oil, gas and coal industries. The executive committee voted unanimously to approve the motion. “We talk about how climate change is real and climate change is a planetary emergency, what we need to do is stop taking money from the institutions that have created this crisis,” said RL Miller, president of the super PAC Climate Hawks Vote Political Action and a co-author of the resolution.

However, two months later, this ban has just been rescinded.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Friday evening saying it welcomes donations from fossil fuel industry workers and “employers’ political action committees.” …DNC Chairman Tom Perez sponsored Friday’s resolution that allows the committee to accept contributions from “workers, including those in energy and related industries, who organize and donate to Democratic candidates individually or through their unions’ or employers’ political action committees.” Perez, who served as Labor Secretary in the Obama administration, said the new measure was a commitment to organized labor. The resolution also says that the party wants “to support fossil fuel workers in an evolving energy economy.”

I am a little skeptical of the claim that the reversal was inspired by concern for union workers. A look at the current financial status of both major political parties offers a more believable rational for not cutting off a potential source of funding.

Furthermore, Big Oil now has near record-level profits it would be able to contribute.

American fuel makers are posting their best second-quarter profits in years, thanks to soaring domestic oil production and regional pipeline bottlenecks that are allowing them to buy crude on the cheap. Refining companies typically suffer as oil prices rise because drivers scale back their travel, reducing demand for gasoline and diesel. But record U.S. production, coupled with insufficient pipeline capacity in Canada and West Texas, has depressed the cost of oil in many parts of the country, even as oil prices have been rising in general. That has boosted margins for many stand-alone refiners, propelling some, including Phillips 66 (PSX 0.34%) and Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC 0.22%), to their highest second-quarter profits on record.

Enjoyably, green activists in the Democratic Party ranks are angered by the move.

“I am furious that the DNC would effectively undo a resolution passed just two months ago just as the movement to ban fossil fuel corporate PAC money is growing (and Democrats are winning),” Democratic Party activist R.L. Miller, a co-sponsor of the original resolution that banned fossil fuel PAC money, told the Huffington Post. “There’s no reason the DNC should go back on their promises and accept corporate PAC money,” tweeted the advocacy group People for Bernie. “The rule being proposed by Tom Perez may allow the Koch Brothers to donate to the party. They could create an ’employer pac’ at Georgia Pacific, have a union member donate, then fill it with their own cash.”

More deliciously, the DNC cited the SCOTUS Janus decision on union dues for the reversal.

Almost blacked out reading the line in the DNC motion to lift the ban on fossil fuel donations where they cite Janus as a reason to keep accepting donations from coal, oil and gas executives pic.twitter.com/x4OEnqFDXS — Kate Aronoff (@KateAronoff) August 10, 2018

And the DNC has seen the light, in terms of the RNC’s “All of the Above” approach to energy.

I’m sorry, what? Trotting out the disastrous “All of the Above” energy policy favored by climate deniers and Republicans in order to defend a move to take more money from the fossil fuel industry? @DNC what are you thinking? https://t.co/cKIfgvqbqK — David Turnbull (@david_turnbull) August 10, 2018

I have written posts at Legal Insurrection for five years. Never have I had to struggle through a post because I am laughing so hysterically that I am having trouble typing.



