Consol Energy Doubles Down On Romney

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Repub­li­can Mitt Rom­ney, after his win in this week’s Florida Primary

For­mer Mass­a­chu­setts Gov­er­nor Mitt Rom­ney has a friend in Con­sol Energy.

The Pittsburgh-based nat­ural gas and coal extrac­tor con­tributed $150,000 to a Romney-affiliated Super PAC in July. Con­sol exec­u­tives also gave $22,000 to the Repub­li­can front-runner’s cam­paign dur­ing the most recent Fed­eral Elec­tions Com­mis­sion fil­ing period, which cov­ered Octo­ber, Novem­ber and Decem­ber 2011.

Not a sin­gle Con­sol employee con­tributed to for­mer Penn­syl­va­nia Sen­a­tor Rick Santorum’s cam­paign or Super PAC, despite the fact the Repub­li­can worked as a con­sul­tant for the com­pany after leav­ing office in 2007.

Consol’s con­tri­bu­tions far out­pace other nat­ural gas extrac­tors who are active in Pennsylvania.

Accord­ing to Fed­eral Elec­tion Com­mis­sion fil­ings, just one other major Mar­cel­lus Shale driller donated to a Repub­li­can candidate’s Super PAC. Chesa­peake Energy gave $125,000 to “Make Us Great Again,” the Super PAC that backed Texas Gov­er­nor Rick Perry. The Oklahoma-based com­pany gave the money to Perry despite the fact CEO Aubrey McClen­don donated the max­i­mum $2,500 to for­mer Utah Gov­er­nor Jon Huntsman’s campaign.

All but one of the Con­sol exec­u­tives’ Rom­ney con­tri­bu­tions were filed on Novem­ber 2, less than a week after Rom­ney attended back-to-back fundrais­ers at Pittsburgh’s – go fig­ure – Con­sol Energy Cen­ter, which houses the National Hockey League’s Penguins.

Con­sol CEO J. Brett Har­vey and 20 other employ­ees, all but two of whom list their job title as “exec­u­tive,” com­bined to con­tribute $21,000 to Rom­ney that day. Another Con­sol employee donated an addi­tional $1,000 a week later.

Just one other Repub­li­can can­di­date can boast of finan­cial sup­port from Con­sol dur­ing the most recent fil­ing period: Ron Paul, who received $280 from a Con­sol coal miner in Ohio.