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Clinton: 'I Don’t Know That I Ever Have' Taken Money From Fossil Fuel Industry

December 16, 2015

Hillary Clinton was asked by an attendee at her town hall meeting in Iowa Wednesday if she would sign a pledge saying that she would not accept money from the fossil fuel industry. Clinton said that she did not think that she had ever accepted money from the oil and gas industries. She joked that she was not one of their favorite people.

"Well, I don't know that I ever have. I am not exactly one of their favorites," Clinton said. "Have I? Well, I will check on that."

A Huffington Post analysis revealed that all of her lobbyist-bundlers have worked for the fossil fuel industry at one point in time. The lobbying firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has been registered to lobby for Chevron since 2006. Two of the firm's lobbyists, Scott Parven and Brian Pomper, have bundled thousands of dollars for Clinton. They have also helped Chevron resist the efforts to eliminate oil and gas tax breaks.

Additionally, the Clinton Foundation accepts millions of dollars from the oil and gas industry. The foundation has accepted donations from fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil and large oil-producing states in the Middle East.

"I am committed to moving away from fossil fuels toward clean renewable energy. I go all over this country bragging about Iowa. Why? Because you are getting a third of your electricity from renewables, primarily wind," Clinton said.

Clinton told the audience of her phone interview with a South Carolinian reporter that she is against drilling off the coast of the United States and that she was the first, even before the president, on not drilling in the Arctic.

"Everyone knows where I stand," Clinton said.