Fossil Fuel Money Behind Republican Hysteria Over Canadian Wildfire Smoke

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America’s Jack*** In Chief has taken to his private social media channel to lambaste Canada for allowing its forests to burn. Yesterday, this failed leader imposed new 50 percent tariffs on lots of Canadian products, claiming (as usual) without evidence that Canada is discriminating against US cheese, among other sins of commission. Andy Borowitz today quipped that the orange wildfire smoke drifting below the border is really a tribute to the Odious One, whose orange tinted skin has become a standing joke.

Paul Krugman wrote today that the new tariffs are actually intended to punish Canada for a sin of omission — allowing its forests to burn. “For the record,” he said, “wildfires have been raging in Canada’s boreal forest, which covers 2 million square miles — the majority of Canada’s land area — and is mostly unmanaged because it’s completely inaccessible. Blaming Canada for not controlling fires that is, in reality, largely a consequence of global warming is unutterably idiotic.” Probably so. Idiocy is the hallmark of this tawdry administration.

It’s Climate Change, Stupid!

Emily Atkin, in her HEATED blog on Substack, reported today that “polling released Saturday by Data for Progress shows that 64 percent of U.S. voters understand that wildfires are being worsened by climate change. The survey of 1,164 voters across the political spectrum showed that only 27 percent don’t think climate change is exacerbating wildfires, and 9 percent don’t know. Interestingly, Republican voters were split down the middle: 45 percent recognized the climate-wildfire connection, while 45 percent rejected it.

“But here’s something revealing: While Republicans in the real world are split on the climate-wildfire connection, Republicans in Congress are not. In fact, every GOP lawmaker who’s spoken up about last week’s air quality crisis has squarely blamed the wildfires’ intensity on poor Canadian forest management, and left out the climate component entirely.”

Fossil Fuel Fat Cats

Some might explain it as simply another example of following America’s ignorant Dear Leader, but Atkin said, “I am willing to say that fawning their unstable validation-obsessed climate-denier president is probably part of the equation. I also believe that, no matter the president, Republicans in Congress would still be ignoring the climate aspect of these wildfires, and directing blame literally anywhere else. And that’s for one simple reason — they are completely bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry. To show you what I mean, let’s take a look at some of the lawmakers who’ve been loudest about blaming Canada for the wildfires over the last week.

• Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) introduced legislation Friday to sanction Canada for failing to contain the wildfires, blaming only insufficient forest management. Moreno has received $445,823 in direct campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry since his election in 2024. He was the sixth-largest Senate recipient of oil and gas funding in the 2024 cycle.
• Rep. John James (R-MI) on Wednesday led a group of Michigan Republicans in sending a strongly worded letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, blaming the country for failing to “manage its forests.” James has received $692,343 in direct campaign donations from the oil and gas industry since his election in 2022. In the 2024 election cycle, he was among the top 5 percent of House recipients of oil and gas money, ranking 20th out of 435 members.
• Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) released a statement Monday accusing Canada of allowing its forests to “burn out of control,” and urging lawmakers to pass the FENCES Act—a bill to shield fossil fuel producers from complying with the Clean Air Act when they believe pollution is coming from abroad. Pfluger has received $2,011,278 in direct contributions from the oil and gas industry since his election in 2020. During the 2024 election cycle alone, he received $808,224—more than any other member of the House, and over $300,000 more than the second-largest recipient, Speaker Mike Johnson.
• Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) on Friday led another group of Michigan Republicans in. sending a letter to Canada’s U.S. ambassador, claiming the wildfires are “largely driven by decades of inadequate forest management.” Walberg has received $473,546 in direct campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry since 2010.
• Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) has been using the Canadian wildfires to argue for loosening air pollution requirements on American businesses. Evans has received $112,929 in direct campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry since his election in 2024. He ranked 50th out of 435 House members in oil and gas contributions during the 2024 cycle, placing him among the top 12 percent of recipients.”

The Power Of Money

“I point this out just to reinforce a couple things that most people here probably already know, but that I think bear repeating as we continue through this hellish Super El Niño summer of compounding climate disasters. First, fossil fuel money is an immensely powerful, intensely corrupting force in American politics that limits not only what conversations we can have about massive problems, but what we can do to solve them.

“It is uncontroversial in the scientific community to say that climate change is intensifying these explosive wildfires, particularly in the Canadian boreal forests. And yet, politically, we cannot do literally anything about it, because calling attention to climate change would require drawing attention to the industry primarily responsible. And that can’t happen. Because — money.”

Atkin acknowledges the alleged president is not the only politician whose grasp on power is predicated on never challenging the fossil fuel status quo. “The entirety of the Republican Party is captured by this industry, and a large number of Democrats are, too. If you look at that big list of Open Secrets oil and gas recipients, you’ll see a lot of Ds next to some of the top names. Coincidentally, those Democrats rarely lead the fight for policies that would seriously make a dent in reducing emissions.

“The industry also has an unthinkably large political infrastructure of super PACs, dark money organizations, trade groups, lobbying operations, think tanks, and advertising campaigns,” Atkin wrote. “A lawmaker doesn’t necessarily have to directly receive a giant check to kowtow to Big Oil.”

The polling makes the political failure even clearer, she claimed. “Despite more than 40 years of lavishly funded propaganda telling them not to believe their own eyes — or lungs — 45 percent of Republican voters understand that climate change is real and worsening wildfires. And yet those voters have essentially no representation in Congress. Not one Republican lawmaker loudly responding to this crisis has acknowledged what nearly half of the party’s own voters already know.

“I would bet a decent amount of money that some of these lawmakers know it, too. And that may be the most tragic part. The fossil fuel industry’s great political achievement is not that it has persuaded every Republican that climate change is a hoax. It is that it has made the truth unspeakable among Republican politicians—even when their constituents are choking on it.” Atkin has a penchant for telling the straight, unvarnished truth.

A Temper Tantrum

Krugman expressed it best when he said, “This really is a temper tantrum, in the sense that there’s no strategy here. The new tariffs will hurt American consumers, and nobody expects them to extract any concessions from Canadians who are only getting more outraged at the United States. Canada should be, and used to be, America’s greatest friend in the world. We share essential political and moral values with our northern neighbor. For the most part we even share a common language, eh? And Canadians viewed us very favorably until Trump began his tariffs and threats. Now we’re viewed less favorably than China.”