Campaign contributions by oil and gas companies

A study investigates the relationship between campaign contributions and legislators’ voting records on the environment in the United States. Oil and gas companies contributed more than $84 million to US congressional candidates in 2018. Whether companies contribute to campaigns to influence legislators’ votes or to invest in legislators whose positions already align with that of the company remains unclear. To distinguish between the two possibilities, Matthew Goldberg and colleagues examined data on contributions to congressional campaigns and congressional voting records from the past 14 election cycles, between 1990 and 2018. Scores from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) were used to measure legislators’ support for environmental policies in a given election cycle. In 13 of 14 election cycles, LCV scores were negatively associated with contributions from oil and gas companies in the following election cycle. On average, a 10% decrease in LCV score in one election cycle was associated with an additional $1,700 in campaign contributions from oil and gas companies in the following cycle. In contrast, little or no relationship was observed between campaign contributions in one cycle and LCV scores in the following cycle. According to the authors, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that oil and gas companies contribute to reward legislators who vote against pro-environmental policies, rather than to alter legislators’ votes.

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Article #19-22175: “Oil and gas companies invest in legislators that vote against the environment,” by Matthew H. Goldberg, Jennifer R. Marlon, Xinran Wang, Sander van der Linden, and Anthony Leiserowtiz.

MEDIA CONTACT: Matthew H. Goldberg, Yale University, New Haven, CT; tel: 646-773-0309; e-mail:

[email protected]

This part of information is sourced from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/potn-ccb021920.php

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