After BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward had expressed his contrition to members of Congress for the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a long-time friend of the oil industry, Rep. Joe Barton (R- Texas), today issued an apology to Hayward for his harsh treatment at the hands of the White House. Barton, speaking at a congressional hearing, called the $20 billion escrow account set up by BP to pay for claims related to the spill, a "shakedown" on the part of the Obama administration.
Individuals and political action committees associated with BP have donated $27,350 to Barton's political campaigns since the 1990 election cycle -- eighth among members of Congress, the Center for Responsive Politics' research indicates. (Barton might find it ironic that the man he said so mistreated BP, President Barack Obama, received more than $77,000 from BP employees during his political career.) Contributions from PACs made up 94 percent of Barton's donations.
Individuals or PACs associated with the oil and gas industry as a whole have been Barton's biggest patron since he entered Congress, donating more than $1,448,380 since the 1990 election cycle. The figure puts him at No. 1 among all House members for donations from the industry, fifth among members of Congress and fourth among active members of Congress.
Barton's comments today came after Hayward had just taken his licks from several members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, including Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). Barton, the ranking Republican on the energy and commerce committee, must have been a welcome sight.
Barton has been a consistent skeptic of global warming and opponent of legislation to address climate change. In his Oval Office speech Tuesday night, President Obama sought to use the disaster from the spill in the Gulf to argue for action on significant climate legislation.
Barton was also among a group of Republican congressmen from Texas who earlier this week put forth a bill to end the moratorium on deepwater drilling. When announcing the bill, he questioned whether the temporary moratorium imposed by the Obama administration would become permanent.
(Update 4:08 p.m.:) Barton's biggest single corporate contributor, Anadarko Petroleum, is a 25 percent stakeholder in the Macondo Prospect, site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Individuals and PACs associated with Anadarko have given Barton's campaigns $146,500 since the 1990 election cycle. Political blog FiveThirtyEight highlights this fact in this report.
(Update 4:23 p.m.:) Barton has retracted his apology to BP and issued another apology for using the word "shakedown" to describe the $20 billion fund set up to cover damage claims on the Gulf Coast, Politico reports.
"I regret the impact that my statement this morning implied that BP should not pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions in this incident," he said in a statement issued by the office of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
(Update 5:37 p.m.:) Additional Center for Responsive Politics analysis shows that Barton's candidate committee and leadership PAC combined have received $1.67 million from the oil and gas industry since the 1990 election cycle.
