Red Herring Designation is a Smoke Screen

For those who claim that fears of foreign owned corporations interfering in US elections is a red herring in the wake of the recent granting of 1st Amendment rights to corporations by the Supreme Court, how about a quote from the Saudis?


RIYADH (Reuters) - United Nations climate talks are a bigger threat to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia than increased oil supplies from rival producers, its lead climate negotiator said on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia's economy depends on oil exports so stands to be one of the biggest losers in any pact that curbs oil demand by penalizing carbon emissions.
"It's one of the biggest threats that we are facing," said Muhammed al-Sabban, head of the Saudi delegation to U.N. talks on climate change and a senior economic adviser to the Saudi oil ministry.
"We are worried about future demand ... oil is being singled out. We are heavily dependent on one commodity."
Saudi depends on oil income for nearly 90 percent of state revenue and exports make up 60 percent of its gross domestic product.
Rival producers such as Iraq and Brazil have plans for significant increases in output, with Baghdad agreeing deals that could raise its capacity to around 12 million barrels per day and threaten Saudi market dominance. The kingdom has a production capacity of 12.5 million barrels per day.
Climate talks posed a bigger threat, Sabban said, and subsidies for the development of renewable energy were distorting market economics in the sector, he said.

The SCOTUS decision makes no distinction between domestic and foreign owned or operated corporations. They all get to spend as much as they want. So the Saudis can and will lobby and campaign hard to stop any alternative energy legislation.
Politicians who are in favor of US energy Independence should expect Saudi financed attacks.
And even if a US politician genuinely holds a position that is being endorsed by a big corporation, he or she will be perceived has having been paid off, causing further erosion of the public's confidence in elected officials.

The only good that can come out of this is if, against all odds and expectations, Congress passes new restrictions on corporate charters that will limit direct influence and stand up to any court challenges int he face of the SCOTUS decision.