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Fourteen Democratic Senators stood up for coal yesterday, notes the Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson: In a letter to Senate leaders, a bloc of senators with powerful coal interests in their

Issues:

Fourteen Democratic Senators stood up for coal yesterday, notes the Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson:

In a letter to Senate leaders, a bloc of senators with powerful coal interests in their states called for “fair emissions allowances in climate change legislation.” Their definition of “fair,” unfortunately, turns out to be full taxpayer subsidies for global warming polluters. They call for the free allocation of pollution permits to electric utilities to be distributed “fully based on emissions.”

Curious about who funds these Senators, I created a list of the fourteen Senators (D-Coal).  If you look at the funding tab, you can see the people in LittleSis who tend to give to these Senators most frequently.

Many of them are just big Democratic donors, but the first name jumps out:  David Castagnetti, who Sunlight’s Paul Blumenthal recently pointed to as a former Baucus staffer lobbying against climate legislation. Castagnetti represents clients like Koch Industries.

Update: Castagnetti also represents the Edison Electric Institute, which is actually against the changes suggested in the Harkin Letter (h/t Brad).