Laxalt has personally raked in millions from a firm representing Shell and Chevron plus tens of thousands of dollars in Big Oil campaign contributions
In Case You Missed It, new reporting highlights how corrupt politician Adam Laxalt’s defense of Big Oil is paying off on the fundraising circuit. Laxalt has made millions from Cooper & Kirk, which touts clients like the Chevron Corporation and Shell Oil. After consistently deflecting blame from Big Oil for high gas prices on the campaign trail, the industry rewarded Laxalt with nearly $30,000 in campaign contributions last quarter.
Laxalt’s firm’s clients have reported record-breaking profits this year while Americans have faced high gas prices, and that money is going toward Laxalt’s campaign through fossil fuel PACs, including from Koch Industries. Laxalt has worked to shield Big Oil from public scrutiny before, abusing his power as attorney general to fight a fraud investigation into ExxonMobil and groups backed by the Kochs, who were some of his largest campaign backers.
American Independent: Nevada Senate candidate Adam Laxalt got oil and gas money as he defended the industry
Josh Israel // 7.27.22
The Republican nominee has claimed high gas prices have nothing to do with ‘greedy oil executives.’
As gas prices broke records in late May, Nevada Republican Senate nominee Adam Laxalt repeatedly defended the oil and gas industry and claimed “greedy oil executives” were not to blame. Last month, the industry rewarded his loyalty with more than $11,000 in campaign contributions.
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While these prices were bad news for consumers, they helped bring massive profits to oil and gas companies, which refused to take steps that might bring costs down.
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Former Nevada Attorney General and unsuccessful 2018 Republican gubernatorial nominee Adam Laxalt, who is currently challenging Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) repeatedly rushed to their defense.
“When you see President Biden get up there and Senator Masto and they start talking about the Putin price hike. More recently, Senator Masto and the Democrats are blaming greedy oil executives for our gas prices,” he said at a May 27 campaign event. “Recently, they’ve been blaming meat conglomerates for the price of meat and everything that goes up. How many, much more finger-pointing are they going to do?”
“This is not greedy oil executives. This is the Democrats. They gave you $5.60 gas that we have today,'” he said the next day at another event.
“It means your gas is $5.60 a gallon in Las Vegas. That’s not Putin’s fault, is it? It’s not greedy oil executives like Catherine Cortez Masto is now pretending like it’s Big Oil’s fault,” Laxalt complained at a third campaign event.
In the days that followed, the contributions poured in.
According to his Federal Election Commission filings, Laxalt received at least $11,050 from oil and gas company executives and corporate PACs in June. That included a $5,000 donation from Continental Resources’ political action committee.
Over the second quarter of 2022, he reported at least $28,700 from oil and gas sector donors in total.
Neither the Laxalt campaign nor Continental Resources immediately responded to inquiries for this story.
Laxalt has continued to defend oil and gas executives against allegations of greed, making the same argument in a Fox Business Network appearance on July 19.
In addition to the campaign donations, Laxalt has been funded by the fossil fuel industry in other ways.
According to his mandatory Senate financial disclosure forms, Laxalt and his wife own tens of thousands of dollars worth of stock in Chevron Corporation and other oil and gas businesses.
He has also been paid millions of dollars for his work at Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, a major conservative law firm that calls itself “the ‘go-to-firm’ to sue the federal government.”
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