Trump is apparently asking the US oil industry to make large donations for his election campaign. In return, he wants to make a U-turn in energy policy.
According to a newspaper report, former US President Donald Trump called on the oil industry to provide significant financial support to his election campaign and promised a change in energy policy. As the Washington Post reported on Thursday, the expected Republican presidential candidate appealed to oil companies at a meeting with managers to raise a billion dollars (930 million euros) for his campaign.
At the same time, Trump promised to immediately overturn dozens of environmental protection regulations put into effect by President Joe Biden’s government upon his return to the presidency. The ex-president announced, among other things, that more licenses for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico would be auctioned and that restrictions on drilling in Arctic areas of the US state of Alaska would be lifted, the newspaper wrote, citing sources with “knowledge of the meeting.”
Meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate
The meeting reportedly took place in April at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Around two dozen managers from the oil and gas industry took part. The companies Chevron, Exxon, Cheniere Energy and Venture Global were represented, among others.
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According to the Washington Post, Trump also promised the assembled managers that “on day one” of a new term in office, he would cancel a moratorium on the expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export infrastructure imposed by the Biden administration in January. This was a top priority for managers at the meeting, the paper reported, citing three unnamed participants.
When asked by the AFP news agency, Trump’s campaign team neither wanted to confirm nor deny the report. However, his campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused Biden, a Democrat, of being “controlled by environmental extremists who are trying to implement the most radical energy agenda in history and force Americans to buy electric vehicles they cannot afford.”
Trump is a “donation puppet”
Biden’s campaign team, however, called Trump a “puppet of his biggest donors.” The Republican doesn’t “fight for what’s best for American families, for cheaper energy or our climate – he only cares about winning this election.”
After taking office, Biden, for his part, made a radical departure from the energy policy of his predecessor Trump, which was characterized by close proximity to the fossil energy industry. Biden’s climate protection package from August 2022 provides 370 billion dollars (around 343 billion euros) for energy security and climate protection – the largest investment in the fight against global warming in US history. With the help of the law, renewable energy sources are to be massively expanded.
In addition, on his first day in office in January 2021, Biden reversed Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the global Paris Climate Agreement of 2015. Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on man-made climate change, while Biden describes it as an “existential threat.”
