ICYMI: Trump’s Big Oil Donors Are Cashing In

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published a piece highlighting the Trump administration’s closeness with oil and gas executives — who donated tens of millions of dollars to re-elect the president — and the fulfillment of their wishlist. This comes after Republicans voted to kill clean energy jobs and raise utility rates for millions of Americans.

The administration is not only capitulating to the requests of the executives by opening wilderness land and federal waters to drilling and axing environmental protections, but also has installed at least a dozen former Big Oil executives and lobbyists across the administration. Industry CEOs now enjoy direct phone calls and personal access to the Oval Office, while American families are left with higher prices, dirtier air, and a future mortgaged to Big Oil’s profits.

The Wall Street Journal: Oil Tycoons Bet Big on Trump. It’s Paying Off.

“Oil billionaire Harold Hamm high-fived Donald Trump on election night as results trickled in at the Mar-a-Lago watch party.

Hamm, founder of family-owned oil-and-gas company Continental Resources, had good reason to celebrate. He and other oilmen had donated tens of millions of dollars to help re-elect Trump, betting that his pro-fossil-fuel agenda would stave off a long-term shift away from fossil fuels and keep the country hooked on gasoline. 

That wager is paying off. The Trump administration is opening swaths of wilderness land and federal waters to drilling, approving new terminals to export natural gas and proposing to ax environmental regulations, including an Obama-era rule used to curb emissions from power plants, tailpipes and oil-and-gas production. His One Big Beautiful Bill is expected to hobble renewable-energy projects and stunt the adoption of electric vehicles. 

Oil executives now enjoy extraordinary access to the White House. Trump has taken to phoning oil bosses whose TV appearances he enjoys, such as Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, according to White House and industry officials.

“No doubt, this administration understands how important energy is,” said Toby Rice, CEO of natural-gas producer EQT. Rice and Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods sat at Trump’s table during a July energy summit in Pittsburgh. 

So far, however, the industry’s policy wins haven’t flowed through to the companies’ bottom lines. Trump’s shifting positions on trade, coupled with an increase in crude supplies globally, have depressed oil prices, cost energy firms billions of dollars in stock-market value and contributed to layoffs across the industry. And new tariffs on steel and aluminum are making drilling more expensive.

U.S. oil prices are hovering near $62 a barrel—below the break-even point for many of the industry’s smaller players—down from about $76 the week Trump took office. Yet some oil bosses see the turbulence as a price worth paying to see the president implement their agenda.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the oil-and-gas industry is the backbone of the American economy and the source of “millions of good-paying jobs,” and that the president is delivering on his promise to “make America energy dominant again.” 

Trump’s unabashed support for the industry has left environmentalists aghast. They contend the administration’s moves will translate into higher energy prices for consumers, fuel climate change and make the U.S. less competitive with other nations that are embracing renewable energy….. (Read the rest here)”