Just two months after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was celebrated by environmentalists for banning donations from fossil fuel companies, it voted 30-2 on Friday to adopt a resolution from Chair Tom Perez that critics said effectively reverses the ban and represents “an absolute failure by the DNC.”
The Huffington Post‘s Alexander Kaufman tweeted Friday:
As climate reporter Kate Aronoff outlined in a series of tweets, Perez’s resolution (pdf) “is premised on the party’s support for unions,” but ultimately will enable fossil fuel executives to use their money to try to influence Democrats.
People for Bernie pointed to the four words of the resolution that caused anger and concern ahead of and following Friday’s vote—language that allows employees of oil and gas companies to donate through corporate political action committees (PACs).
The unanimously approved original resolution—which requires the DNC to reject “corporate PAC contributions from the fossil fuel industry”—was spearheaded by Christine Pelosi, the daughter of Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a member of the DNC’s executive committee.
Christine Pelosi tried Friday to pressure the committee to remove the language in Perez’s resolution which undermines the ban on corporate PAC donations, but her proposal was voted down 28-4:
While a DNC spokesperson claimed to Kaufman that the resolution is “not a reversal,” adding that “any review of our current donations reflects” the party’s “commitment” to no longer taking donations from the industry, reactions among activists and party supporters ranged from worried to infuriated.
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