Who Owns The West? Oil & Gas Leases in America's West

Campaign contributions can have a significant influence on the policies that elected officials choose to support. A critical look at these contributions can provide an understanding of the motivation behind the promotion of policies that have favored oil and gas industry interests over the public interest.

The oil and gas industry has kept the wheels of power greased with nearly $75.5 million of federal campaign contributions during the past three election cycles, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). Of the 50 industries giving the most in federal contributions, oil and gas interests ranked number 10 in 2000, 14 in 2002 and 21 in 2004.

EWG's analysis of campaign data compiled by CRP also shows that companies holding leases on large amounts of western lands are some of the biggest contributors in the industry, and that the contributions overwhelmingly go to Republicans:

Nineteen of the top 20 oil and gas lease holders in the U.S. contributed $17.9 million to political campaigns from 2000 to 2004, 24 percent of the total contributions from the industry during that period (Table 4).
Nearly 60 percent of the top political oil and gas contributors (those donating more than $200,000) hold leases on western public land (Table 5).
Companies holding current leases on public lands gave at least 58% of the total political contributions from the oil and gas industry between 2000 and 2004, and gave 4.7 times more money to the GOP than to Democrats. Two-thirds (66.5%) of contributing lessees gave exclusively to the GOP.

Table 1. Oil and gas companies gave more than four times as much money to Republicans as Democrats over the past 3 election cycles.

Federal Political Contributions	Total Contributions (2000-2004 election cycles)
Total Contributions	$75,491,794
Republicans	$60,324,779
Democrats	$14,647,796

Source: Environmental Working Group analysis of federal campaign contribution data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics.

Table 2. The top 10 political contributors, led by Enron, gave 27 percent of all oil and gas industry donations over the past 3 election cycles ($20.4 million of $75.5 million total)

Employees/PACs/Soft Money of:	Total Contributions
Enron Corp	$3,395,835
Koch Industries	$3,379,792
Exxon Mobil	$3,046,138
El Paso Corp	$1,998,357
Anadarko Petroleum	$1,655,016
ChevronTexaco	$1,621,162
American Gas Assn	$1,521,075
Occidental Petroleum	$1,445,396
BP Amoco	$1,190,218
Chevron Corp	$1,186,027

Source: Environmental Working Group analysis of federal campaign contribution data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics.

Table 3. Nineteen of the top 20 oil and gas lessees in the U.S. contributed to political campaigns from 2000 to 2004, collectively donating $17.9 million dollars.

Employees/PACs/Soft Money of:	Acres Leased	Contributions to:
Employees/PACs/Soft Money of:	Acres Leased	Democrats	Republicans	Total
Yates Petroleum Corp	3,584,742	$0	$234,126	$234,126
Encana Oil & Gas Inc	1,359,351	$0	$35,200	$35,200
Tom Brown Inc	1,150,518	$0	$29,290	$29,290
Devon Energy Corporation	1,054,235	$46,000	$574,233	$620,233
Westport Oil & Gas Co LP	1,022,347	$9,987	$1,250	$11,237
Burlington Resources	914,375	$495,539	$2,679,608	$3,175,147
ConocoPhillips	811,131	$173,513	$1,392,445	$1,565,958
Questar Corporation	768,804	$4,950	$35,855	$40,805
Exxon Mobil	734,004	$295,445	$2,750,693	$3,046,138
Anadarko Petroleum Corp	732,058	$59,670	$1,596,271	$1,655,941
EOG Resources Inc	729,822	$500	$12,250	$12,750
ChevronTexaco Corporation	691,047	$803,374	$2,487,184	$3,290,558
BP America	667,999	$604,381	$1,479,798	$2,084,179
Nance Petroleum Inc	664,162	$0	$16,420	$16,420
Dominion Resources	633,005	$37,015	$81,419	$118,434
Western Gas Resources Inc	587,610	$0	$0	$0
The Williams Companies	575,244	$143,300	$812,293	$955,593
Cabot Oil & Gas Corp	543,929	$750	$86,000	$86,750
Marathon Oil Co	537,421	$1,000	$7,500	$8,500
Kerr-McGee Corporation	458,340	$88,500	$846,994	$935,494

Source: Environmental Working Group analysis of federal campaign contribution data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics.

Table 4. More than 40 percent of top the political oil and gas contributors hold or have held leases on western public land

(shown below are the 30 lease holders among 71 companies who gave more than $200,000 to political campaigns between 2000 and 2004)

Employees/PACs/Soft Money of:	Currently Leased (acres)	Ever Leased (acres)	Total Contributions
Enron Oil & Gas Co	0	174,254	$3,398,585
Koch Exploration Co LLC	17,676	361,655	$3,379,792
ChevronTexaco Corporation	691,047	7,794,166	$3,290,558
Burlington Resources	914,375	5,551,671	$3,175,147
BP America	667,999	6,989,502	$2,084,179
Anadarko Petroleum Corp	732,058	4,110,014	$1,655,941
ConocoPhillips	811,131	6,470,932	$1,565,958
Occidental Petroleum Corp	177,334	1,572,296	$1,445,396
The Williams Companies	575,244	987,622	$955,593
Kerr-McGee Corporation	458,340	1,610,561	$935,494
Ashland Expl Inc	3,252	58,392	$906,425
Kinder Morgan CO2 Co LP	108,351	142,946	$818,684
Hunt Oil Co	90,046	3,375,836	$746,812
Halliburton Energy Svc Inc	31,952	34,512	$740,282
Coastal Oil & Gas Corp	1,310	217,119	$703,025
Pennaco Energy Inc	280,366	293,984	$671,951
Devon Energy Corporation	1,054,235	3,878,718	$620,233
Davis Oil Company	89,095	621,284	$559,942
Shell Oil Company	61,582	3,491,867	$484,260
Benson Mineral Group	1,518	1,518	$472,688
Amerada Hess Corp	82,003	1,080,260	$394,670
True Oil LLC	182,376	536,187	$323,366
Enterprise Gas Co	9,104	132,028	$282,050
Veco Drilling Inc	2,558	17,785	$238,670
Yates Petroleum Corp	3,584,742	10,575,765	$234,126
Anschutz Corp	110,123	3,202,906	$229,759
Murphy Oil Corp	158	86,525	$212,490
Falcon Seaboard Oil & Gas	7,935	7,935	$208,662
Chesapeake Expl Ltd Ptnrshp	27,129	108,442	$206,000
Wagner & Brown Ltd	4,231	17,451	$201,655

Source: Environmental Working Group analysis of federal campaign contribution data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics.