Over the years, RunSwitch and Jennings have also been involved with the pro-McConnell group Kentuckians for Strong Leadership (KSL). According to Federal Election Commission records, the super PAC has paid RunSwitch over $140,000 since 2013 (see: data in 2013-2014, 2015-2016, 2017-2018).

During that same period, major donors to KSL have included fossil fuel-linked entities such as American Electric Power, Murray Energy Corporation, and a revocable trust belonging to Joseph W. Craft III, who is the president and CEO of coal company Alliance Resources Partners. In 2014, Jennings and KSL ran a campaign defending the coal industry from political attacks.

The CNN commentator also worked for the pro-McConnell 501(c)(4) group Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, which was active during the 2014 election and McConnell’s successful reelection campaign. The Intercept’s Lee Fang reported in 2015 that, according to its bankruptcy filings, now-defunct coal company Alpha Natural Resources helped fund the group.

Jennings could have even more conflicts of interest than those reported here since, as the Center for Public Integrity wrote in a 2015 report, public relations firms are “not subject to federal disclosure rules.”

Those many conflicts of interest should have prevented Jennings from commenting on issues related to the fossil fuel industry (or at a very minimum required CNN to offer a disclosure about his firm’s clients). Instead, CNN has repeatedly allowed Jennings to defend the interests of fossil fuel companies. Here are nine examples:

• During a September 2, 2017, appearance on CNN Newsroom, CNN political commentator Symone Sanders criticized Trump for reversing an Obama-era EPA regulation and correctly tied Hurricane Harvey to climate change. Jennings responded by attacking Sanders, stating: “I think that only a liberal Democrat could come in and tell us that EPA and government regulations could prevent an epic hurricane like what we just saw come ashore. I mean, that's sort of a nonsense talk.”
• During a December 30, 2017, appearance on CNN Newsroom, Jennings praised President Donald Trump for a tweet making fun of climate change, saying: “I do think that here in Kentucky, we know something about when it is cold, what heats our homes and that’s good old Kentucky coal. I think 90 percent of the electricity in Kentucky is generated by coal. And I think what the president is doing in his tweets is poking a little fun at some of the liberal Democrats who tried to rid our country of coal and other fossil fuels. And so, I think the president was just trying to get a rise out of the left wing. This was a big issue in the campaign. And frankly, I think it hurt.” He later claimed that environmental protections “destroyed Kentucky coal.”   
• In a January 31, 2018, CNN.com op-ed, Jennings praised Trump’s State of the Union speech, stating that it “offered some good old-fashioned Trump-style populism,” including when the president “said he ended the ‘war on coal.’” Jennings added that the populism continues “to play well in Flyover Country, even as they cause Washington Democrats to roll their eyes. Trump has never lost his touch when it comes to putting Democrats on the wrong side of issues that play 80-20 in middle America.”
• During an April 4 appearance on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, Jennings praised then-EPA head Scott Pruitt as “one of the most effective cabinet officers at rolling back the Obama regulatory regime.” (While discussing Pruitt on CNN, Jennings was also sometimes critical of Pruitt’s judgement related to ethics but still heavily praised him for trying to reduce environmental protections.)
• Jennings wrote an April 5 CNN.com op-ed defending Pruitt, writing that he “might be the most successful Trump cabinet member, delivering win after win to President Trump” and liberals are “hopping mad that he's dismantling Obama's anti-business regulatory regime.” He concluded by praising Pruitt for “taming one of the most out-of-control, anti-growth bureaucracies in Washington.”  
• During an April 5 appearance on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, Jennings said, “Pruitt took the mandate seriously and he has systematically dismantled the Obama regulatory regime. That's why I think he is under attack right now.”
• During a May 5 appearance on CNN Newsroom, Jennings praised Pruitt for “effectively deconstructing the Obama-era rules at the EPA that were anti-growth, anti-business.”
• During a November 24 appearance on CNN Newsroom, Jennings said he didn’t believe climate change is a hoax but said that policy makers have to “figure out what actions can we take that would help counteract it but at the same time not immediately devastate people in economic regions that are more sensitive to it than others, say in Appalachia where the coal industry is still important.” He also suggested that the “free market” could “innovate” in response to environmental concerns.
• During the February 13 edition of Cuomo Prime Time, Jennings attacked the Green New Deal, saying, “To call this policy half-baked would be in, you know, I'm not even sure the Democrats turned the oven on yet.” He continued by discussing the proposal’s “policy implications for the energy sector, for the manufacturing sector, for the agriculture sector,” claiming that “thousands of jobs ... would be impacted in the Midwest, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, North Dakota, where Joe Manchin is in West Virginia, in my home state of Kentucky. This would dramatically fundamentally alter the U.S. economy and would put a lot of people out of work.”