"these people who own fossil fuels are powerful players in our political world. Until recently, ExxonMobil was the biggest company on Earth. Entire nations - Russia or Saudi Arabia, say - are essentially petro-states, deriving most of their revenue and power from hydrocarbons. The biggest political donors in American history, the Koch brothers, were also the country's biggest oil and gas barons; United States Senator Joe Manchin, who has taken more political donations from the fossil fuel industry than anyone else in Washington and personally has millions invested in coal, was single-handedly able to rewrite climate legislation in 2021."