In May, the International Energy Agency laid out an ultimatum to policy makers: for the world to have a 50/50 chance at reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, no new fossil fuel developments can be approved, starting immediately.
The U.S. fossil fuel industry has other plans. Oil drillers, fracked gas companies, and pipeline firms are investing to expand their production in the surging Permian Basin, an area located mostly in West Texas, and giant offshore export terminals are being planned to speed up the shipping of crude oil from the region across the globe. Production of oil, gas, and gas liquids there is projected to grow by 50% by the end of the decade if left unchecked, according to a new report from the nonprofit Oil Change International, driving up greenhouse gas emissions and exporting more fossil fuels to burn.
The Production Gap Report of the United Nations Environment Programme, which tracks fossil fuel production worldwide, found recently that countries are on track to produce more than double the volume of fossil fuels in 2030 than is compatible with the emissions goals of the Paris Agreement on climate. When countries blow past these targets over the next eight years, and as drilling in the Permian Basin spews more of the potent warming gas methane into the atmosphere, nearly a quarter of U.S. House members will be among the investors profiting from the irreversible environmental destruction.
Since Sludge’s analysis of congressional fossil fuel investments two years ago, the vast majority of lawmakers who were invested in the industry then and are still in office have held onto their stakes. At least 100 U.S. House members own investments in the fossil fuel industry as of the date of publication, according to a Sludge review of financial disclosures. These investments include corporate stocks, oil wells, and shares in energy industry funds that receive failing grades on sustainability from the resource Fossil Free Funds. The investments are either owned by the member of Congress, their spouse, jointly, or by a dependent child. Of the 100 congresspeople invested in fossil fuel companies, 59 are Republicans and 41 are Democrats, and all of the top 10 members with the most invested in the industry are Republicans.
