Gov. Bob McDonnell's political action committee (PAC) was recently given a $100,000 contribution in a single week from one family, that of James C. Justice II.
Justice, his wife and two children, each gave Gov. McDonnell's PAC, "Opportunity Virginia PAC," $25,000 according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
Justice is a coal executive in West Virginia and the owner of the Greenbrier resort. He is a billionaire who's money has been made from coal, timber, and corn.
But Justice is the latest in a string of other big-money donations since the beginning of May that have equaled up to $160,000 on top of the $100,000 contributed by the Justices.
Needless to say, these kind of large PAC contributions from coal executives leave McDonnell's position on "clean energy" more dubious than ever.
In the world of politics, you are where you get your money from and if McDonnell continues to drag his feet on the issue of clean and renewable forms of energy, one need look no further than the sources of the contributions to McDonnell's future political ambitions.
While McDonnell fills his political coffers for future political campaigns, Virginians are little closer to realizing a coal-free future than they were before McDonnell came into office as governor.
For men like McDonnell however, the consequences of inaction don't matter because they do not feel the direct and immediate effects. But the issues of global warming and air pollution don't recognize class boundaries, even if McDonnell does. |
