Selling Souls for Oil
By Erika Pietrzak, July 23, 2024
If we continue to allow politicians who will sell their opinions to the highest bidder and ignore climate needs into office, we will no longer have a world to live in…
During President Joseph Biden’s tenure, he has been able to pass over 100 environmental regulations. Still, U.S. oil companies lead the world in producing almost 13 million barrels of crude oil daily. Former President and current Presidential candidate Donald J Trump met with CEOs and executives from several oil companies (such as Chevron, Exxon, and Venture Global) in April at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He has promised oil CEOs that he will overturn “numerous environmental rules and policies if they provided $1 billion to his campaign for re-election.” The overturned rules include Trump’s promise to reduce taxation and regulation on oil companies. Trump promised these companies to “end a freeze on permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports,” lease more spaces for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and challenge Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rulings on reducing vehicle emissions, the last of which he called “ridiculous”. He expressed the urgency of which he would overturn these rulings, saying he would overturn the freeze on LNG permits on the first day of his second term. Trump also promised to approve drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, despite being in the critical habitat of critically endangered species that may go extinct with drilling. Trump’s promise is “$1bn for Trump, a devastating climate future for the rest of us.”
Oil is mostly used for transportation and has few readily-available substitutes. As the most-traded global commodity, oil must be taxed in order to maintain current climate heat levels. Through the entire supply chain, oil causes “significant GHG emissions beyond the combustion of its end-use petroleum products.” Throughout the oil process, significant energy is needed and workers are not often protected. Many oils also have natural gas within them, which must be collected instead of vented, worsening environmental conditions. Even just allowing for oil exploration in environments like the Arctic “causes disruption of migratory pathways, degradation of important animal habitats, and oil spills” because all of the easily-accessible oil has already been tapped into. Oil spills are far too common and consistently destructive for regulations and policies to be relaxed.
Image Credit: Brian Adams
While it is legal for organizations to donate through the complicated system of Political Action Committees (PACs), corporations cannot donate directly to a candidate. Also, corporations cannot donate as bribes or in exchange for preferential treatment, like this promise that exchanges Big Oil’s funds for Big Oil policies being passed. As a result, while no funds have gone through yet, a congressional investigation led by Jamie Raskin is looking to investigate Mar-a-Lago for any wrongdoing or quid pro quo. Jordan Libowitz of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics claims that Trump “blantant[ly]” participated in quid pro quo and that his legal team will be looking into the Mar-a-Lago meeting. With just one question on climate during the debate (during which Trump talked about other issues for almost his entire time) and no pushback from Biden or the moderators, there are still many questions unanswered that the public deserves to know.
Trump not only threatens to prevent future steps forward for environmental protection, but promises to reverse the much-needed safeguards in place that have been carefully thought out to reduce the maximum amount of damage on all fronts. Trump has clearly stated his environmental opinions in this move: he does not care about the world that keeps every one of us alive. He has called climate change a “hoax” and weakened or eradicated over 100 environmental rules and policies during his tenure. President Biden has only been able to overturn less than 30 of these changes Trump made, but Biden has been able to push for climate solutions globally, a much-needed approach as climate change has no borders. Climate Power’s Christina Polizzi stated that Trump “is in the pocket of big oil – he gave them $25bn in tax breaks in his first term – and now it’s clear he is willing to do whatever big oil wants in a potential second term.”
The fossil fuel industry is scrambling to maintain its chokehold on energy and transportation. The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers have poured millions into a campaign against the EPA’s vehicle rules. Since the ruling, auto industries have dedicated billions to making their cars more environmentally-friendly. Using words like “attack,” Trump and his colleagues have exaggerated Biden administration changes and created hysteria. Biden’s campaign spokesperson, Ammar Moussa, stated that Trump was “selling out working families for Big Oil for campaign checks.” Big Oil has already contributed millions to Trump’s campaign and has fundraisers on the books for Trump’s campaign later this year. At one of these fundraisers in Houston, Trump also promised Big Oil to expedite the Keystone XL pipeline, an extremely controversial project due to its racist undertones in its chosen location that would result in significant environmental racism in North Dakota. As promised in Houston was the expedition of the Dakota Access Pipeline, despite the pipeline’s assault on Indigenous rights, with its builder company’s CEO as the fundraiser’s organizer and personally donating 800,000 USD to Trump’s campaign. The fundraiser itself raised over 25 million USD for Trump’s campaign on the backs of Big Oil companies. At the Houston event, Trump also claimed that wind energy does not work and causes too many collisions with wildlife to benefit the environment. This cannot be further from the truth. In fact, fossil fuel projects kill 5.18 birds per giga-watt hour of electricity, while wind energy kills just 0.269 birds per giga-watt hour of electricity.
Image Credit: Justin Sullivan
If we continue to allow politicians who will sell their opinions to the highest bidder and ignore climate needs into office, we will no longer have a world to live in; we will no longer need presidential debates or congressional hearings because there will be no world to inhabit. Trump has called water-saving a “scam” and energy-efficient appliances as part of “the energy hoax.” Big Oil companies are already drafting ready-to-sign legislation in hopes for Trump’s win that will set back our climate wins significantly. At Mar-a-Lago and the presidential debate, Trump proved to care more about his golf game than our world.
Change The Chamber is a nonpartisan coalition of over 100 student groups, including undergraduates, graduate students and recent graduates.