No one has given more money to Johnson than the oil and gas industry.
The majority party of the U.S. House of Representatives feuded among itself for an unprecedented three weeks before producing an historic disappointment of a Speaker: an individual who is both an election-denier and a climate-denier.
During the final consideration of Louisiana Congressmember Mike Johnson as the fourth Republican nominee this month for House Speaker, many media focused on Johnson’s history as a purveyor of looney conspiracy theories in support of former president Donald Trump’s spurious claims to have won the 2020 election. Johnson also voted to reject several swing states’ votes for Joe Biden in the electoral college, and against certifying Biden’s legitimate victory for president.
Since Johnson’s election as Speaker, the press has also begun to focus on the extreme degree to which Johnson is hostile to action on the climate crisis in particular, as well as to environmental protection in general. The New York Times notes, “Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, the newly elected House speaker, has questioned climate science, opposed clean energy and received more campaign contributions from oil and gas companies than from any other industry last year.”
Johnson “has consistently voted against dozens of climate bills and amendments, opposing legislation that would require companies to disclose their risks from climate change and bills that would reduce leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas wells. He has voted for measures that would cut funding to the Environmental Protection Agency.”
League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld said, “MAGA Mike Johnson has an appalling LCV lifetime score of just 2% and has already taken hundreds of thousands from the oil and gas industry during his career in the House. According to opensecrets.org, no one has given more money to Johnson than the oil and gas industry. Johnson has led attacks on our elections, denied that climate change is a result of fossil fuels and polluters, and appears poised to continue to cater to Big Oil and Gas allies as Speaker. The last three weeks of chaos caused by extremist House Republicans is just another demonstration of how willing they are to grind the country and economy to a halt instead of moving towards a more equitable and just democracy and clean energy future.”
“It should concern us all that someone with such extreme views and so beholden to the fossil fuel industry has such power and influence during a time when bold action is more critical than ever,” Ben Jealous, the executive director of the Sierra Club, told the New York Times.
It does indeed concern us all, and bodes ill for what the U.S. House under its most extremist leadership in many years may attempt to do to our environmental future.
