Fossil fuel billionaires are being rewarded for investing in Trump’s campaign.
By Chuck Collins | –
( Otherwords.org ) – As he left office, President Biden warned of an emerging oligarchy in this country — rule by and for a small number of wealthy people and corporations.
After donating heavily to President Trump’s campaign, the fossil fuel industry in particular has already begun to reap return on their investments. Welcome to the age of “Oil-Garchy.”
Trump has nominated some of the most vociferous climate deniers and advocates for the oil, gas, and coal industries for key positions overseeing the environment, energy, and public lands. He picked former Rep. Lee Zeldin, a climate denialist, to run the Environmental Protection Agency and Chris Wright, CEO of fracking company Liberty Energy, to oversee the Energy Department.
Meanwhile the top 15 fossil fuel industry billionaires have already seen their personal combined wealth rise from $267.6 billion to $307.9 billion — a gain of over $40 billion, or 15.2 percent — since April 2024.
The Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) released its first monthly tracking report, Pipeline to Power: Trump and the “Oil-garch” Wealth Surge, that will monitor wealth gains and losses by top billionaires in the sector over the coming year. According to the report, the first wave of big wealth gainers include fossil fuel CEOs and scions of billionaire families like the Kochs.
For these billionaires, it’s time to cash in.
On April 11, 2024, the CEOs and leaders of the oil and gas industries gathered at Mar-A-Lago for a meeting with then-candidate Trump about energy policy.
Trump used the occasion, according to witnesses, to make a brazen transactional pitch: raise $1 billion for his campaign and he would do their bidding. Trump told the assembled that the billions they would save in taxes and legal expenses after he repealed regulations would more than cover their billion-dollar contribution.
Already, Trump is moving to expand offshore drilling, weaken environmental rules, scrap electric vehicles, and stop new wind projects, among other policies opposed by the industry groups. Trump also vowed to reverse President Biden’s pause on new LNG exports.
Image by John R Perry from Pixabay
Present at the Mar-a-Lago Club on that April day were industry leaders such as Harold Hamm, the wildcat fracker and chairman of Continental Resources, who played an influential role in Trump’s first administration. Also present was Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota and Trump’s nominee to Interior Secretary, a position overseeing gas leases on public lands.
Other attendees included leaders from the American Petroleum Institute and executives from Chevron, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips, along with fracking producers Cheniere Energy and EQT.
Hamm and Vicki Hollub, CEO of Occidental Petroleum, organized donors within the fossil fuel sector to support Trump and funnel money to his campaign. They didn’t raise a billion dollars, but they helped move hundreds of millions to PACs supporting Trump and directly to the candidate.
According to Climate Connections at Yale University, the fossil fuel industry spent $219 million to influence the new U.S. government, including $26 million in direct oil and gas industry contributions to (mostly) Republican lawmakers and nearly $23 million in oil and gas industry funds went directly to Trump and his PACs.
No wonder Hamm just hosted an exclusive inauguration watch party for fossil fuel executives to celebrate Trump’s re-election.
If the last few years taught us anything, it’s that record levels of oil production and fossil fuel profits don’t lead to better prices for consumers — and they come with the additional price of climate chaos for our communities.
This is what “Oil-garchy” looks like. And we all need to stand up to it.
You can see the whole report at www.climatecriminals.org.
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