House Democrats launch investigation into Trump’s
alleged offers to oil executives
Democrats on the House oversight committee sent
letters to oil executives asking about alleged $1bn quid pro quo offer
Dharna Noor
Tue 14 May
2024 21.16 CEST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/14/trump-oil-executives-democrat-investigation
House
Democrats have launched an investigation into a meeting between oil company
executives and Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home and club last month,
following reports that the former president offered to dismantle Biden’s
environmental rules and requested $1bn in contributions to his presidential
campaign.
Democrats
on the House oversight committee late on Monday evening sent letters to nine
oil executives requesting information on their companies’ participation in the
meeting.
“Media
reports raise significant potential ethical, campaign finance, and legal issues
that would flow from the effective sale of American energy and regulatory
policy to commercial interests in return for large campaign contributions,” the
Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the committee, wrote in
the letters.
The
investigation comes after the Washington Post broke the news of the dinner
meeting, where Trump spoke in front of more than 20 fossil fuel executives from
companies including Chevron, Exxon and Occidental Petroleum.
It was
reported that Trump said steering $1bn into his campaign would be a “deal” for
the companies because of the costs they would avoid under him. The former
president offered in a second term to immediately end the Biden
administration’s freeze on permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports,
while auctioning off more oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico and
reversing drilling restrictions in the Alaskan Arctic, among other promises.
Oversight
Democrats addressed letters to the CEOs of oil giants Chevron and Exxon,
liquefied natural gas company Cheniere Energy, and fossil fuel firms Chesapeake
Energy, Continental Resources, EQT Corporation, Occidental Petroleum and
Venture Global.
They also
sent an inquiry to the head of the American Petroleum Institute (API), the
fossil fuel industry’s top lobbying arm in the US.
Asked about
the investigation, API spokesperson Andrea Woods said the organization “meets
with policymakers and candidates from across the political spectrum on topics
important to our industry”.
Reports of
the meeting are especially troubling, Raskin wrote in the letters, in light of
revelations in Politico earlier last week that stated the oil industry is
writing up “ready-to-sign executive orders” for Trump aimed at increasing gas
exports, slashing drilling costs and increasing offshore oil leases.
He asked
the executives to provide the names and titles of any company representatives
who attended the Mar-a-Lago meeting, copies of materials shared with the
attendees, descriptions of rules and policies discussed at the event, and an
account of financial contributions to the Trump campaign made at the event or
afterward.
The junior
senator from Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse, who chairs the Senate budget
committee, has expressed interest in launching an investigation into the
meeting as well. “Trump’s offer of a blatant quid pro quo to oil executives is
practically an invitation to ask questions about Big Oil’s political corruption
and manipulation,” he said in an emailed statement.
Compared
with Raskin’s, Whitehouse’s investigation would have a significant advantage:
if the companies refuse to turn over information, the Senate budget committee
can file subpoenas. Because Republicans have a House majority, House Democrats
do not have the power to subpoena documents.
A joint
investigation by the Senate budget committee and House oversight Democrats
revealed last month that big oil admits that it spent years covering up the
dangers of burning fossil fuels, and that major oil companies lobbied against
climate laws and regulations they have publicly claimed to support.
“Fossil
fuel malfeasance will cost Americans trillions in climate damages, and the
budget committee is looking at how to ensure the industry cannot simply buy off
politicians in order to saddle taxpayers with the bill,” said Whitehouse.
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