O'Rourke on climate change

As he launches his candidacy for president this weekend in oil-rich Texas, Beto O’Rourke is taking some flak from the left for all the money he got from drilling interests during his race for the U.S. Senate — and about reports of his more recent refusal to sign on to the “No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge.”

O’Rourke, who is making the “existential threat” of climate change a major theme of his presidential kickoff tour, signed a pledge against taking any fossil fuel money at the behest of an Austin environmental group during the Senate race, according to a copy obtained by The Texas Tribune. But he was removed from the national list of pledge signers after one of the national environmental groups behind it saw reports that he had accepted almost half a million dollars from individuals, including executives, in the oil and gas industry during the 2018 campaign.