Lawmaker Who Compared Green New Deal to Genocide Rakes in Oil Money

The lawmaker who compared the Green New Deal to genocide last week has taken major campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies. Rob Bishop, a Republican congressman from Utah, expressed his opposition rather cryptically after a news conference in which Republican lawmakers called for hearings on New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s plan to address climate change.

“For many people who live in the West, but also in rural and urban areas, the ideas behind the Green New Deal are tantamount to genocide,” Bishop said. When a reporter asked him to elaborate, he said: “I’m an ethnic. I’m a Westerner,” and also: “Killing would be positive if you implement everything the Green New Deal actually wants to.”

The oil and gas industry has been Bishop’s top source of campaign cash throughout his career, accounting for $500,000 in donations, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He has taken significant campaign contributions from oil and gas industry giants like BP, Anadarko, Halliburton and Chevron, according to campaign finance data from the political research organization MapLight.

The Green New Deal resolution seeks to get rid of carbon emissions and pollution while investing in high-paying jobs and strengthening labor laws. The legislation proposes a completely renewable energy system and clean transportation infrastructure to fight against the clock when it comes to climate change. It has nothing to do with targeted violence against an ethnic or religious group.

The American Petroleum Institute, whose informational materials on climate change describe “the many benefits that oil and natural gas provide our nation,” gave Bishop $2,500 through its political action committee in 2017. From 2008 to 2017, API spent $663 million on public relations as they spread doubt about climate change.

API’s chief executive, Mike Sommers, seems to be in denial as well. “While politicians haven’t been able to figure out a strategy on climate change, this industry has stepped up to the plate,” he said Friday. The industry groups Independent Petroleum Association of America and Petroleum Marketers Association of America also gave to Bishop.

Pacific Gas & Electric’s PAC gave Bishop $3,500 during the last election cycle. The California electric utility was blamed for a series of devastating wildfires in Northern California during the same period. The company said in a regulatory filing that it was “probable” their equipment started a fire in Butte County last year that killed 86 people and destroyed more than 18,000 structures.

The coal industry also has given support to Bishop. In 2017, the National Mining Association’s CEO and two PACs gave Bishop $5,000, while coal company Cloud Peak Energy’s employee PAC gave $1,500. Both organizations lobbied against an excise tax that would go to the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, a vital but underfunded program for people living with illness or disability due to prolonged exposure to coal dust.

“Efforts to increase taxes on the coal industry were misguided, especially now, when industry is working to stabilize after years of decline,” said Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, which held its 2017 board of directors meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Some companies that gave to Bishop, such as BP, are in the growing renewable energy business and could actually stand to benefit from the Green New Deal. Bishop does not seem to grasp this nuance. “My comments were obviously not meant literally, and should not detract from the fact that the so-called Green New Deal is born of attitudes that show no respect for the lives and livelihoods of the American people,” he said in a statement.