BP's Donations to Congress More Worrying than Its Donations to Obama

President Obama has received the most—$77,051—which might seem surprising at first blush. But presidential candidates receive a lot more than everybody else, and most major donors, including energy companies, spread their donations between Republicans and Democrats. So it's not shocking that Obama's among the very top recipients, although I would've expected McCain or Bush to have received more.

But more oil money goes to Congress as a whole than to presidential candidates. Sunlight, an advocate for government transparency, lists the 10 biggest recipients of BP cash who are currently serving in Congress:

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska)—$73,300

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona)—$44,899

Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio)—$41,400

Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan)—$31,000

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana)—$28,200

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas)—$27,350

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma)—$22,300

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)—$22,000

Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas)—$20,950

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas)—$19,500

Few surprises here. Quick review: Inhofe is the Senate's lead climate-change denier; Barton is his counterpart in the House; McConnell is the Senate GOP leader; McCain has abandoned his former interest in climate legislation; Young is the sole rep from an oil-intensive state; Dingell is a chief protector of the Detroit auto industry, and Landrieu hearts the Gulf oil and gas industries.

Point being, if you want to fault Obama for taking Big Oil money, go for it. If you think it may have influenced his decision to expand offshore drilling, fine. But he wants to sign a decent clean-energy bill, according to everything we've seen him do and heard him say.

The Senate is where the bill is stalled out. That's where oil money is doing the most damage.

Check out the original post at Grist.

Photo via Grist.\n