Profiles In Hypocrisy: Democrat J.B. Pritzker Profits Off Fossil Fuel Industry That He Regularly Attacks

Billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune J.B. Pritzker is running for governor of Illinois as a self-described “progressive,” but a new report by the Chicago Sun-Times detailing Pritzker’s financial history shows that he’s been misleading voters about his environmental record.

At a Sierra Club forum just last month, Pritzker stood in front of crowd of progressive voters and lambasted “the profits of the fossil fuel industry.”

“This idea of profits over people, we’ve got to do away with,” Pritzker remarked.

Yet despite Pritzker’s swooning words to environmentalists, the Chicago Sun-Times is now reporting that Pritzker himself rakes in profits from the fossil fuel industry.

Most notably, the Sun-Times finds that among other fossil fuel interests, Pritzker has “a partnership interest in Energy Transfer Partners LP, a pipeline operator that constructed and is a part-owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline.”

It’s a clear-cut case of blatant hypocrisy. Pritzker says one thing on the campaign trail to environmental activists, and does the exact opposite behind the scenes.

From being caught begging Rod Blagojevich on FBI wiretaps for a state job, to refusing to pay his fair share of property taxes, Pritzker is quickly showing voters that he believes he can get away with hypocrisy.