Climate Power Senior Advisor Holds Trump Accountable for Alleged Efforts to Collude with Big Oil, Selling Out the Middle Class

Washington, D.C. — During today’s House Natural Resources Committee Democrats’ Roundtable: Holding Big Oil Accountable for Extortion, Collusion, and Pollution, members of Congress and advocates, including Climate Power’s Senior Advisor for Oil and Gas Alex Witt, took Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to task for their dangerous Project 2025 agenda and Big Oil’s alleged efforts to collude with OPEC to raise costs on families. 

“Despite well-documented, multi-decade campaigns of disinformation and deception by Big Oil, Democrats enacted the largest-ever climate and clean energy investment in history. We are building an economy that gives Americans cleaner, more affordable energy choices and creates good-paying jobs across the country,” said Alex Witt, Climate Power senior advisor for oil and gas. “Instead of investing in that progress, oil industry executives are working with Republican politicians and foreign adversaries to undermine these efforts. Americans can’t afford Trump’s Project 2025 agenda, which would increase household energy costs and destroy clean energy jobs to line the pockets of wealthy fossil fuel executives and shareholders.”

Alex Witt on Big Oil’s alleged collusion with OPEC: 

“Earlier this year, the FTC announced that it was launching an investigation into former Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield. The justification for this investigation was an alleged attempt by Sheffield to collude with OPEC and OPEC+ to raise oil prices, costing the average household an estimated increase of $500 per car in fuel costs annually. This isn’t the first time Big Oil has been accused of colluding to keep prices high—executives from Hess, Occidental, and Diamondback Energy have been investigated over their communications with OPEC officials.” 

Alex Witt on Big Oil Profiteering: 

“Companies have been brazen in their announcements that they are looking to maximize shareholder profits, so they will continue to double down on dirty fossil fuels instead of supporting transitions to a clean energy economy. Instead of investing in the kind of technology that would allow us to move toward energy that is both sustaining our economy and creating jobs, they are preferring to stick to what they know and to invest in their wealthy investors.”