NBC Bay Area-

You may not realize it when thinking about politics in environmentally conscious and “green” California, but an 18-month-long NBC Bay Area and Maplight investigation found the oil and gas industry paid $182 million to California politicians, PACs and political causes between 2001 and June 30, 2018. For the past year and a half, the Investigative Unit worked with Maplight, a nonpartisan group based in Berkeley that tracks campaign contributions to uncover just how much money and influence the oil and gas industry wields in Sacramento.

“It’s a tremendous amount of money,” said Daniel Newman, the founder of Maplight, about the contributions from oil and gas. Newman started Maplight in 2005 in order to show voters the impact that money has on our political system.

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