Let's not mince words here. Oil is a major part of the Texas economy. There are a lot of jobs and families that rely on oil. But, oil is a finite resource. It will eventually run out. That's just the nature of the business. So yes, we should be moving towards a renewable resources, but we need to transition from oil without leaving that industry behind. As long as that industry is willing to move forward as well. Unfortunately, it seems they aren't always willing to go along with progress and they pay a bunch of money to hinder the progress by donating to Texas Republicans.

Here are some of the big name Republicans in Texas that have taken money from the oil industry and just how much they've received.

  • Senator John Cornyn:
    • From 2019 to 2020 he received $50,000 from Marathon Petroleum’s PAC
    • $25,000 from natural gas infrastructure company Sempra Energy’s PAC
    • $25,000 from utility giant NextEnergy
    • $40,000 from Koch Industries
  • Representative Dan Crenshaw:
    • Received overall $453,247 combined from individuals and from PACs
  • Senator Ted Cruz:
    • Even though he wasn't up for reelection last year, he still got money from the oil industry. He got $14,000 from Chevron’s PAC and $10,000 from Exxon’s.
  • Governor Greg Abbott:
    • From 2019 to 2020, his biggest donor was Syed Javaid Anwar, the CEO of Midland Energy, who donated $1,617,500.
  • Lt. Governor Dan Patrick:
    • He also received a bunch of money from Syed Javaid Anwar, to the tune of almost $250,000.

So what makes these donations so egregious? There isn't a problem with the donations themselves. The problem is the rhetoric that's being spewed by some of these politicians. CLICK HERE to read up on how they're blaming the wind turbines freezing up during this winter storm as the reason for the power outages.

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