MEMO: A Convention and a Candidate Brought to You By Big Oil

Tonight in Milwaukee—just days after a heinous act of political violence—Donald Trump will take the stage to make his case to voters in this consequential election. While disagreement will always be part of American democracy, we cannot allow violence to become normal. Because we are committed to resolving our differences at the ballot box, we need to engage in the political moment with urgency and intent. 

In this election, on the most pressing issues of our time, the stakes are high, and the contrast is stark. This week, roughly half the people in the United States were under some sort of heat alert. On the first night of the Republican convention, hundreds of thousands of Texans in the path of Hurricane Beryl entered their second week without power, and tornadoes touched down in Chicago. The climate crisis is impossible to ignore—and it is one area where the choice in 2024 is most clearly presented. 

The Biden-Harris Administration has delivered historic climate progress and revitalized the manufacturing industry with more than 300,000 new clean energy jobs producing the technology that will lower our energy costs. At the same time, Donald Trump has vowed to deliver Big Oil CEOs’ entire wish list in exchange for a billion dollars in campaign cash. 

At the top of Big Oil’s wish list is ending the American clean energy boom, which is breaking their century-long monopoly on our energy. If Trump and Big Oil get their way, they’ll stop investments in clean energy, risking thousands of jobs and jeopardizing local communities dependent on the thriving clean energy industry.

Here’s what you need to know about Trump’s Big Oil agenda and how it sits with voters:  

1. TRUMP’S BIG OIL AGENDA IS EXTREME, ALARMING, AND UNPOPULAR 

Donald Trump—already the worst president in history on clean air and water and climate change—has pledged to go far beyond his first term and act a “dictator on Day One” by embracing wildly unpopular policies demanded by the oil industry. Trump has promised oil CEOs massive tax breaks totaling $110 billion and the destruction of President Biden’s climate progress and protections for our air and water and will allow Big Oil to gouge Americans at the pump. 

• Trump and MAGA Republicans are in thrall to  Big Oil—and that is an enormous political liability with voters

• Nearly two-thirds of voters would reconsider their vote for a candidate who offers a “deal” to Big Oil in return for campaign donations.
• 83% of voters say cracking down on corporate greed should be a priority.
• 84% of Americans are concerned about oil and gas companies making large profits while consumers face rising energy bills. 

Trump’s Project 2025 plan meticulously lays out a radical overhaul of our government and the removal of every obstacle to the extreme MAGA and oil industry agendas. In a move that the American people find particularly alarming, Project 2025 would even launch a political takeover of the National Weather Service to control the monitoring of extreme heat and climate information by suppressing scientists.

• Voters reject Trump’s Project 2025 agenda and they view it as a “takeover”

• 62% of Americans believe Project 2025 will have a negative impact on them and their families.
• 77% find it concerning that Project 2025 proposed a plan to eliminate the National Weather Service—including 79% Non-MAGA Republicans and even 49% MAGA Republicans.

On the other hand, the Biden-Harris Administration is standing up to Big Oil and corporate greed, protecting the air we breathe and water we drink. Since taking office, President Biden has taken more than 300 environmental actions—more than any other president in history.

2. REPUBLICANS’ RADICAL AGENDA WILL LET CORPORATIONS POLLUTE

President Biden passed the most ambitious climate plan in history, which will cut approximately 1 billion tons of carbon pollution in the next five years, while Trump has been promising Big Oil executives that he will eviscerate all protections for our air, water, and public lands. He continues to argue that climate change is a “hoax.” 

As president, Trump sided with Big Oil to gut more than 125 environmental protections, leaving our air and water dirtier and poisoning our most vulnerable communities, including communities of color and low-income households. Trump will let corporate polluters pump toxins into our air and water, exposing American families to chemicals linked to cancer, asthma, and brain damage. 

• Voters believe climate change is real, it is a crisis, and it is happening right now—they want action against climate change and pollution

• 80% of voters recognize that climate change is happening right now.
• 7-in-10 voters support the US taking steps to slow or stop the rate of climate change.
• 74% of voters support regulating carbon dioxide (the primary greenhouse gas) as a pollutant.

3. SQUEEZING THE MIDDLE CLASS AND WEAKENING AMERICA

Just as alarming, while President Biden’s climate investments have led to an influx of American energy choices and companies announcing more than 300,000 jobs already, Trump is promising to upend the entire clean energy industry, which he calls a scam. 

Trump’s MAGA radical agenda will gut our nation’s clean energy economy, taking away cleaner and more affordable energy choices and eliminating clean energy jobs, while giving more tax handouts and making billion-dollar deals with Big Oil executives. 

• There is broad support for President Biden’s clean energy plan

• 71% of voters support the Inflation Reduction Act.
• 77% of voters support investments in manufacturing clean energy.
• 64% of Americans say the country should focus on expanding renewable energy rather than fossil fuel sources—among Republicans, at least 7-in-10 young Republicans (18-29) prefer developing solar and wind farms over oil and gas drilling.

Trump’s pledge to repeal those investments would eliminate energy choices and raise energy costs for American families. It would also pull the rug out from under innovative American clean energy companies and send hundreds of thousands of good, middle-class manufacturing jobs overseas—putting him on the same side as the Chinese government which is also trying to overturn those investments and stomp out American clean energy.

4. TRUMP AND REPUBLICANS’ RADICAL POLICIES ARE  WILDLY OUT OF STEP WITH VOTERS

Make no mistake: the American people overwhelmingly support protections for clean air and water—as well as President Biden’s clean energy plan. They also are viscerally angry at oil executives over being gouged at the pump. Trump, though, has pledged to crush the competition the fossil fuel industry is feeling from clean energy so they can continue maximizing profits at the American people’s expense. A few highlights from recent polls: 

• Americans know that extreme weather is having a negative financial and health impact on them and their families

• 65% of Americans say that the impacts of extreme weather events are getting worse.
• 73% of Americans believe the world’s climate is undergoing a change, leading to more extreme weather patterns and sea level rise.

• Americans overwhelmingly oppose the Trump-Big Oil agenda

• Voters are most concerned that Trump would end environmental protections and investments in clean energy, which could lead to thousands of workers being laid off and hurt local communities across the country.
• 73% of voters support ramping up production of American-made clean energy technologies to strengthen our energy supply chains and manufacturing industries.