Washington, DC: In response to Koch-backed AFP Action’s support for Nikki Haley in the Republican presidential primary, LCV Victory Fund issued the following statement from David Willett, SVP of Communications:

“The Koch machine may want to move past Trump, but Big Oil is still desperate to have a president like Nikki Haley who would do their bidding. Polluters like the Koch network know that the Biden-Harris administration is making more progress on climate action and job-creating, cost-lowering clean energy than any administration in history. When it comes to energy policy Nikki Haley is no less extreme than Trump, and it should come as no surprise that a group with fossil fuel connections would support her.”

Background: 

• Under President Trump, Haley was responsible for pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement, something her campaign says she would do again, and that she would “lift the Biden administration’s restrictions on oil and gas production, eliminate subsidies for renewable energy, and cancel proposed regulations on power plants and vehicle emissions.” Haley has acknowledged climate change is happening, but that only makes her platform of increasing use of fossil fuels and rolling back clean energy incentives even worse as it will only exacerbate the crisis. Haley is also no stranger to Big Oil backers, her presidential campaign has taken at least $32,935 from the oil and gas industry since February 2023. This includes $6,660 from Murphy Oil chairman Claiborne P. Deming, $6,660 from Hunt Oil executive chairman Ray Hunt, $6,600 from Lucas Oil Products executive Katie Lucas, $3,300 from Midway Petroleum Group executive Naresh Mittal, and $3,330 from Koch government affairs executive Philip Ellender. [Federal Elections Commission, accessed 11/28/23] During her state legislative campaigns from 2004 to 2010, Nikki Haley took $124,041 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry. [FollowTheMoney.org, accessed 11/28/23]
• Meanwhile, after rolling back over 100 environmental safeguards and mocking climate change while making wild claims like windmills cause cancer as President, Trump has shown no signs of changing his positions despite losing in 2020 to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who campaigned on the most aggressive climate platform of any major party nominee in history. Since getting back on the campaign trail in between arraignments, Trump has only continued to dismiss climate change and make up numbers that vastly underestimate the impact of sea level rise and engage in fearmongering to deflect from the benefits to auto workers, energy costs and the climate of investments in clean, electric vehicles.
• Americans for Prosperity and AFP Action were founded by Charles and David Koch, who have long history of funneling millions of their fossil fuel industry profits into a complicated network of groups to promote climate denial, support candidates who will roll back environmental protections, and influence policy and the courts to shield polluters from accountability.

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Paid for by LCV Victory Fund, www.lcvvictoryfund.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.