Oil Firms Step Up Donations as Drilling Debate Sharpens

The oil and gas industry has stepped up its political contributions to Orange County congressmen since 1981, a period in which it has been seeking controversial offshore drilling leases, according to campaign finance records.

However, both donors and recipients say there is no connection between the contributions and the current debate over Reagan Administration proposals to allow drilling off of Orange County and elsewhere along the California coast.

Issue on People’s Minds

“It’s an issue in the back of everyone’s mind,” said Russ Burkett, a San Juan Capistrano developer and GOP political activist who distributed lists of oil industry contributions at a recent Laguna Niguel community meeting on the offshore drilling issue.

“It looks suspicious, because even some of the strongest supporters of drilling were not receiving as much money from the oil industry a few years back,” he said. “But it could be a coincidence.”

However, V.M. Gilmer, director of the Houston-based Shell Oil Co. employees’ political action committee, said he was unaware of any increase in contributions so far this year.

“Offshore development is an issue near and dear to our hearts,” Gilmer said, “but I’ve been in on every (contribution) decision made by our PAC, and I never heard that (offshore drilling) mentioned.”

Shell distributes about $200,000 to politicians during each two-year congressional campaign cycle, Gilmer said.

Shell Biggest Contributor

It is the biggest oil industry contributor to the county’s House delegation so far this year, with $1,000 divided among three congressmen: Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), $500, and $250 each for Reps. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Robert E. Badham (R-Newport Beach).

“I don’t think campaign contributions have anything to do with how various members of the California delegation feel on this issue,” Dannemeyer said in a recent interview.

“The pattern I see is that some of the Democrats who represent inland districts, far away from any beaches, have no reason to fight the proponents of offshore development, such as myself, but they’re out there fighting us any way,” he said. “I suggest that the Democrats are treating it as a partisan issue.”

On the other hand, Dannemeyer acknowledged that Republicans get more money from oil companies than Democrats. Asked why, he replied:

“Republicans are more inclined to be there when votes are needed for energy independence (from foreign suppliers) and for development of new energy sources.”

During the first six months of this year, a non-election period, the Orange County congressional delegation received a total of $6,050 from oil and gas companies.

$500 Received in 1981

These officials received $2,950 and $500 respectively for the same non-election periods in 1983 and 1981, according to campaign records filed with the Federal Elections Commission and the secretary of state.

The non-election years are important because the debates over offshore oil drilling produced key congressional votes in 1981 and 1983 that led to a moratorium on drilling that is about to expire.

During the first half of this year, Dannemeyer, the California congressional delegation’s most outspoken proponent of offshore drilling, led the five-member Orange County House contingent with $3,100 from oil and gas companies.

Dornan, another strong supporter of offshore drilling, was second with $1,550. Badham, a harsh critic of drilling off of Orange County, took in $1,250, compared to $150 for drilling proponent Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach). Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) received no money from oil and gas firms, according to the campaign reports.

Total of $93,270

Since 1980, the oil and gas industry has given a total of $93,270 to the county’s five House members, with 58.3%, or $54,350, of the money going to two of them, Dornan, who leads with $29,200, and Dannemeyer, who took in $25,150, campaign records show.

Lungren received $24,170 during the period, while Packard and Badham received $7,650 and $7,100, respectively.

The current controversy on offshore oil drilling surfaced earlier this year when Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel announced a tentative agreement with several California congressmen that would exempt 150 proposed oil drilling tracts out of more than 3,000 from the moratorium.

The oil industry strongly criticized the agreement as too little, too late. However, coastal residents of Orange and San Diego counties complained bitterly that drilling would spoil their environment, their ocean views and tourism.

Tentative Plan Scrapped

After a two-week swing through California that ended Sept. 1, Hodel indicated he would scrap the tentative agreement and write his own plan, to be revealed by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, intensive lobbying by both proponents and opponents of offshore drilling is in full swing, with several meetings scheduled in Washington this week.

Campaign contributions made since June 30--during the most current debate on the drilling issue--will not show up on mandatory campaign finance documents until January.

Reports on file since 1980, however, show that campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry have peaked during election years and reached a peak last year with $32,400 given to the county’s five congressmen.

Dornan led the pack last year with $15,700, nearly twice that of runner-up Dannemeyer’s $8,450.

Dornan Top Recipient

Surprisingly, Dornan, who currently represents an Orange County district, also was the top recipient in 1980, when he represented a Santa Monica district and helped lead the “Save Our Bay” anti-drilling forces that same year.

Dornan, through an aide, explained that the oil and gas industry was so pleased with his support for deregulation of natural gas and oil prices and offshore oil exploration elsewhere that they simply wrote off Dornan’s opposition concerning Santa Monica Bay to “local political sensitivities.”

“It didn’t matter to them,” said the aide, Brian Bennett.

In some cases, the biggest oil and gas industry contributors to the congressmen have been relatively small local firms with strong district ties instead of major national companies such as Shell.

For example, campaign finance documents show that officials of Petrolane, a Santa Fe Springs company that is now part of Texas Eastern, gave more money ($7,900) than any other oil or gas firm since 1980, and all of it went to Lungren, a Long Beach-area Republican whose district includes north coastal Orange County.

‘Family Friendship’ Cited

Mark Gravel, Lungren’s district field deputy, said “Petrolane’s contributions had nothing to do with offshore oil. . . . It was a family friendship situation that goes back many years. . . . They were among the people who first urged Dan to run for Congress.”

Having given $2,595 to Dannemeyer since 1980, officials of Costa Mesa-based Andrews Petroleum rank 10th among the biggest oil and gas industry donors.

As in Lungren’s case, Dannemeyer said, “As far as I know, the Andrews family has no interest in offshore oil, and my relationship with them goes back many years, even before I held public office. I was an attorney for them, and they’ve been friends a long, long time.”

By contrast, a Times survey of 1985 campaign finance documents for the lawmakers who negotiated the tentative offshore oil agreement with Interior Secretary Hodel earlier this year showed that none of the House members has received much money from oil and gas companies.

Some Received No Funds

Reps. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento), Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) and several other Democrats who played minor roles received no oil and gas money at all during the first six months of this year, according to the documents.

Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego), whose district was spared from planned offshore leases, received $250 each from two political action committees--Los Angeles-based ARCO and the American Gas Employees’ Assn.

Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica), who managed to keep tracts within Santa Monica Bay out of the tentative agreement, got $1,000 from Los Angeles oilman Kenneth W. Slutsky.

The biggest beneficiaries were U.S. Sens. Pete Wilson and Alan Cranston. Wilson took in $26,750 from oil and gas industry sources during the first six months of this year while Cranston garnered $10,000.

Both have been staunch supporters of the tentative agreement and have warned Hodel not to tamper with it, a position adverse to industry interests.

Officials and employees of ARCO were the single largest source of industry money for Wilson--$10,500 so far this year, according to campaign documents.

Cranston’s biggest industry source was Occidental Petroleum’s employee PAC and the firm’s chairman, Armand Hammer. Together they donated $8,500 to Cranston this year.

OIL INDUSTRY DONATIONS Oil and gas industry donors to Orange County congressmen since 1980

1. Petrolane (now part of Texas Eastern) $7,900 2. Louisiana Energy PAC $7,000 3. Chevron PAC $5,900 4. Union Oil PAC $5,850 5. Shell Oil PAC $5,500 6. Texaco PAC $3,850 7. D.L. Hunt Estate $3,000 8. ARCO PAC $2,700 9. Mobil PAC $2,600 10. Andrews Petroleum $2,595

Contributions from oil and gas industry to Orange County congressmen since 1980

Robert K. Dornan $29,200 William E. Dannemeyer $25,150 Daniel E. Lungren $24,170 Ron Packard $7,650 Robert E. Badham $7,100