State of Trump’s Union with Big Oil

New Climate Power Memo: Climate takedown is  at the heart of the Trump agenda 

Washington, D.C. – Tonight, President Joe Biden highlighted the work taking place across the country to rebuild our economy from the middle out. Already, his climate plan has created more than 271,000 jobs from coast to coast, putting people back to work, lowering energy costs, and launching a new era for U.S. manufacturing. Thanks to President Biden’s historic actions, the state of America’s clean energy economy is stronger today than ever before.

The contrast between Biden’s climate leadership and Donald Trump’s denialism could not be more stark. Trump prides himself on his connections to Big Oil and gas and spent four years in the White House giving them license to pollute our air and water. 

A new memo, released tonight from Climate Power details the worst of Trump’s climate denial, his cozy ties to Big Oil, and the damage he’s promised to do if elected to a second term. 

TO: Interested Parties

FROM: Alex Witt, Climate Power

DATE: March 7, 2024

RE: “Dictator on Day One”: Donald Trump Is Making Climate Takedown a Centerpiece of His Campaign

Donald Trump is putting climate and energy issues at the forefront of his presidential campaign. While his abhorrent rhetoric and impending legal fights have been getting the majority of coverage, Trump has repeatedly promised that if he is returned to office he will undo the progress made by President Joe Biden.

It is a mistake to assume voters remember Trump’s record and the chaos of his presidency. According to polling conducted by Hart Research on behalf of Climate Power, a smaller percentage of Americans view Trump unfavorably than did when he left office, but their disapproval grows when reminded of Trump’s actions in office. When we remind voters of Trump’s dismal record on climate and clean energy and educate them about President Biden’s accomplishments, they move significantly towards Biden.

Luckily, we don’t have to guess at Trump’s plans and their potential impacts. Trump’s record on climate and energy issues was atrocious, setting the country back years from the progress made during the Obama administration, all to appease greedy CEOs and corporate polluters. 

Trump was a consistent climate denier, gutted regulations for clean air and water, stopped clean energy investments, and was the worst environmental president in history. He pushed for billions of dollars in tax breaks for Big Oil and on the campaign trail in 2024, Trump has promised to end clean energy investments and put Big Oil back in charge if he’s returned to office. 

From outright denying established climate science to awarding billions in handouts to Big Oil while allowing them to pollute our air and water, Donald Trump’s long and terrible climate record speaks volumes about what a second term would look like.

• Trump opposes clean energy investments and instead prioritized billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil and gas to increase domestic oil production. A 2018 report found that the oil and gas industry was one of the “greatest financial beneficiaries” of Trump’s 2017 tax law.
• Trump eliminated or weakened more than 100 protections against carbon pollution, including nearly 30 rules that reined in air pollution and dangerous emissions, 12 drilling and extraction rules, and eight to clean up our water. These actions were estimated to significantly increase carbon pollution over the next decade and lead to thousands of extra deaths from poor air quality each year – one study estimated Trump’s rollbacks caused 22,000 excess deaths in 2019 alone. 

Despite the fact that a majority of voters—including Republicans—say that the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events are kitchen table issues in their households, Trump has taken an extreme denialist approach to climate change – repeatedly, calling it a “hoax” and “bullshit,” and has cast doubt upon established climate science since at least 2010. He’s continued to say it in his 2024 campaign.

• One of Trump’s first actions as president was to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, despite experts concluding that the U.S.’s participation would save over half a trillion dollars annually and the Agreement would create 24 million clean energy jobs globally by 2030. 
• Trump repealed the Clean Power Plan, an action that allowed coal power plants to continue polluting our air. If fully implemented, the Clean Power Plan would have reduced power sector carbon emissions by 32%, sulfur dioxide pollution by 90%, nitrogen oxide pollution by 72%, and prevented 4,500 premature deaths and over $50 billion in health savings per year in 2030.
• Nearly half of Trump’s initial political appointees for positions at the EPA had polluting industry ties, including “registered lobbyists or lawyers for chemical manufacturers, fossil fuel producers or other EPA-regulated companies.”

• Trump approved multiple controversial pipeline projects and made it harder for the government to conduct environmental reviews of pipeline projects.
• Trump ripped up an Obama-era Executive Order aimed at reducing the federal government’s emissions by 40% over ten years.
• The Trump tax law included a provision opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Following Congressional passage of the bill, Trump boasted, “We’re going to start drilling in ANWR, one of the largest oil reserves in the world, that for 40 years this country was unable to touch.”
• Donald Trump’s policies amount to a war on the clean energy economy that cost jobs, stunted economic growth, and impeded the nation’s ability to tackle climate change. Trump imposed tariffs on solar, tried to eliminate the electric vehicle tax credit, and slow-walked the leasing and planning processes for renewable energy projects. His actions cost Americans 1.1. million clean energy jobs.

While on the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly promised to gut the monumental progress made by the Biden administration. 

• Promised to roll back Biden administration climate action: Referring to climate action taken under the Biden administration, Trump said in a July 2023 campaign video, “I am going to terminate these Green New Deal atrocities on day one.”

• Promised to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement: At a November 2023 rally in Houston, TX, Trump said, “I withdrew from the disastrous Paris Climate Accord, which was a ripoff, it sounds nice. I want the Texas Climate Accord. I don’t want Paris, we don’t need the Paris Climate Accord. We want the Texas Climate Accord. This is the climate we want.”

• Promised to end Biden administration emission standards: Trump’s 2024 campaign platform states that he will end Biden’s “harmful April 2023 emission regulations for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles,” along with “Biden’s insane CAFE fuel economy standards.”

Trump has promised to focus on fossil fuels and drilling in the United States at the expense of clean energy production.

• Promised to increase coal production: During an October 2023 interview with Just The News, Trump said, “And coal, by the way. Clean coal. They can do things with coal now that they wouldn’t have even dreamt. For West Virginia, Wyoming, and a lot of places, it’s phenomenal. But they don’t want to go there because it doesn’t work well on their platforms, with their people. But we will do things that nobody ever thought possible.” There is, of course, no such thing as clean coal.
• Promised to restart drilling at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: At a September 2023 campaign event, Trump criticized the Biden administration for ending drilling at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, “They ended ANWR. But I’ll get that started very quickly.”
• Promised to approve more pipelines if elected in 2024. At a November 2023 campaign rally in New Hampshire, Trump said, “I will approve pipelines and infrastructure to cut through the cost of energy. And you know, if you had a pipeline going through New York state, your energy costs would be less than half.”
• Promised to drill on “day one”: During a December 2023 Fox News town hall, Trump said one of his day one priorities will be to “drill, baby, drill” while he guts investment in homegrown energy sources like solar and wind.

This is only a small sampling of the dangerous rhetoric and policies proposed by candidate Trump and actually enacted by then-President Trump. Trump is determined to gut the progress made by the Biden administration, all to help the big polluters funding MAGA Republicans.

Project 2025, a draft agenda for a second Trump Presidency, lays out how a federal government helmed by Donald Trump will dramatically reshape America by shrinking, defunding, or dismantling certain agencies and departments and installing extremists in positions of power. He will eliminate three Energy Department agencies vital for the green energy transition, and gut the Environmental Protection Agency.

Trump and his allies are already telling us what their plans are for the next four years if he takes the oath of office next January.

Bottom line: A second Trump presidency would be a disaster for climate and a dangerous slide backward for the country.