The Oil Trail

Jake Tapper reports here that FactCheck.org pushed back against Barack Obama's recent TV ad in Pennsylvania in which he claims that he doesn't take money from oil companies. The truth is that no candidate does; corporations are forbidden to make campaign donations. The investigation found that Obama does, however, take money from people within the oil industry. In fact, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Obama has raked in $213,000 in campaign contributions from people working in the oil and gas industries and their spouses. That's a substantial sum, but the other two presidential candidates have received even more from individuals tied to the oil industry: $306,000 for Hillary Clinton and $393,000 for John McCain. But how much would these oil money ties impact the decision making of each candidate in the White House?

To answer the question, I looked at Obama, Clinton, and McCain's Senate records for some help. Oil Change International compiled a chart of oil-related votes in comparison with the degree to which each senator is tainted by oil money. Clinton received $149,050 in oil money between 2000 and 2007 while Obama received $70,000 during the same time period. Of course, Obama did not take office until January 2005 and has not yet finished a full term, while Clinton took office in 2001 and is in the middle of a term as well. McCain received only $22,350 in oil money during that time period, ranking him below both Democratic candidates in his "Oil Money Ranking." However, McCain voted in favor of oil company interests rather than public interests 57% of the time anyway, whereas Obama did so 33% of the time and Clinton only 22% of the time. In fact, Clinton's only two so-called votes for the oil industry were two Iraq war votes for emergency funding, the first of which passed with 99 votes and the second with unanimous support.

It seems, at least based on these figures of senatorial votes, that the dominating institution influencing oil-related decision making is not the need to appease the hands that fed each candidate, but rather his or her party affiliation. Assuming that this pattern from the Senate will transfer into the White House, it will be either the Democratic or Republican party ideology largely deciding energy policy, not the power of oil industry pursestrings.