Elizabeth Warren touts fight against ‘big oil’ as Sierra Club endorses

Democrats were never close to the Senate votes needed last week to nix billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks, but passage was far from the only — or even the primary — goal.

Look for Democrats to use the vote on the stump as they seek to paint Republicans as oil company allies. Case in point: The Sierra Club’s (unsurprising) Monday endorsement of Elizabeth Warren in her race against incumbent Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), who voted to maintain the industry tax incentives last Thursday.

“I will stand up to big oil and other energy companies. Instead of subsidizing the richest, most profitable companies on the planet, we need to invest in 21st century energy and efforts that protect our environment, create jobs, and lower production costs for businesses here in Massachusetts and across the country,” Warren said in a prepared statement alongside the endorsement.

A new Boston Globe poll shows Brown and Warren in a dead heat.

The Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters have the environmental movement’s largest political campaign operations.

It wasn’t immediately clear Monday how much money the Sierra Club intends to pour into Warren’s effort to topple Brown.

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, in a statement, said Warren “knows that protecting our air, our drinking water, and the health of our children and our communities should always come before boosting polluter profits.”