Senate Democrats Allege Oil Donors Rewarded With Rollbacks
Two senior Senate Democrats released a report alleging oil and gas donors were rewarded with tax breaks and regulatory rollbacks after Trump's $1 billion request.
Two senior Democrats in the US Senate released a report on Thursday alleging that oil and gas companies received tax breaks, subsidies and environmental deregulation after Donald Trump, then a candidate, asked the industry for $1 billion in donations during the 2024 campaign.
The report was issued by Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, and Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the environment committee. It draws on 19 investigations into regulatory rollbacks by the Environmental Protection Agency, 13 investigations covering nine other agencies, and 13 probes into what the senators described as 88 polluters.
According to the report, hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign spending tracked after Trump's request to the energy companies translated into hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks and revenues, as policies encouraged consumers to buy more fossil fuels.
The report argues that working families bear the cost through higher energy prices, weakened public services and the long-term burden of climate and health damage, while oil executives and shareholders benefit. It describes the outcome as a massive transfer of wealth.
The findings may signal the issues Democratic lawmakers would pursue in hearings if they win control of the Senate in November's midterm elections. The senators are scheduled to hold a press conference on the report at 9:45 a.m. ET.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report arrives amid the administration's latest effort to dismantle environmental regulations. This month, the EPA announced rules to repeal former President Joe Biden's limits on carbon emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants and to block future climate-focused regulation of them. The administration says its broader push to unwind US climate policy is meant to remove obstacles to energy production.
The EPA said the repeal would save the industry $370 million in compliance costs. The Biden administration had said its rule would deliver $370 billion in benefits, including lower medical bills for health problems linked to smog and other emissions.