Big Oil spent $450 million to influence Trump and Republicans in 2024 election cycle

Washington, D.C. – Big Oil spent $450 million to influence Donald Trump and Republicans throughout the 2024 election cycle and 118th Congress, a new analysis by Climate Power revealed. This funding includes direct donations, lobbying, and advertising to support Republicans and their policies.

“The oil and gas industry spent a whopping $450 million to influence Donald Trump and Republicans,” said Alex Witt, Climate Power senior advisor for oil and gas, in a statement. “That investment is already paying off.”

“Donald Trump’s day-one actions have shown where his loyalties lie – executing the industry’s wishlist at the expense of working Americans. Trump’s energy agenda will raise costs for families, strip away energy choices, dirty our air and water, and put 400,000 new clean energy jobs at risk,” Wittman concluded. 

In the 2024 election cycle, oil and gas donors spent:

• $96 million in direct donations to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and super PACs between January 2023 and November 2024
• $243 million lobbying Congress
• Nearly $80 million on advertising supporting Trump and other Republicans or policy positions supported by their campaigns
• More than $25 million to Republican down-ballot races, including $16.3 million to Republican House races, $8.2 million to Republican Senate races, and $559,049 to Republican Governors.

“At closed-door meetings at Mar-a-Lago and swanky industry fundraisers, Trump made wooing the industry a top campaign priority—and it worked. Oil billionaires like Continental Resources’ Harold Hamm, Energy Transfer Partners’ Kelcy Warren, and Hilcorp Energy Co.’s Jeffrey Hildebrand gave millions to his campaign and affiliated PACs,” the report states.

The report concludes:

Trump’s close ties to oil and gas executives and his willingness to prioritize their agenda underscore the relationship between his political ambitions and Big Oil’s financial goals.

As he enters his second term, Trump has promised to implement an oil and gas industry wishlist—a wishlist that will undercut competition from clean energy, raise utility bills for families, and send hundreds of thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs to China.

While Trump has deceptively claimed he is declaring an “emergency” to produce more energy and lower costs, his first actions actually aim to crush some of America’s most abundant energy supplies—because his agenda is geared toward maximizing oil industry profits rather than American energy production. The only way for the U.S. to truly become a global energy superpower is to free ourselves from Big Oil's grip and invest in the clean energy of the future.

Read the full analysis HERE

The fossil fuel industry donations produce the results desired

The donations definitely produced the results desired by the oil and gas industry. During his Inaugural Address, President Donald Trump unveiled his plan to quickly enact a number of executive orders concerning energy and the environment in his complete denial of the climate change crisis that is now ravaging the planet.

These include a “national energy emergency” to encourage more oil and gas production; opening up new federal lands to fossil fuel extraction; ending environmental justice programs across the country; and canceling clean energy incentives, according to a statement from Food & Water Watch.

Trump also announced his plan to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, as he did in his first administration.

Here’s Trump’s statement on the White House website:

MAKE AMERICA AFFORDABLE AND ENERGY DOMINANT AGAIN

• The President will unleash American energy by ending Biden’s policies of climate extremism, streamlining permitting, and reviewing for rescission all regulations that impose undue burdens on energy production and use, including mining and processing of non-fuel minerals.
• President Trump’s energy actions empower consumer choice in vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers.
• President Trump will declare an energy emergency and use all necessary resources to build critical infrastructure.
• President Trump’s energy policies will end leasing to massive wind farms that degrade our natural landscapes and fail to serve American energy consumers.
• President Trump will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.
• All agencies will take emergency measures to reduce the cost of living.
• President Trump will announce the America First Trade Policy.
• America will no longer be beholden to foreign organizations for our national tax policy, which punishes American businesses.

As expected, there was not a word in Trump’s statement addressing the increasingly dramatic impacts of climate change on the U.S. and the world.   

U.S. forecasted to reach a new high in crude oil production in 2025 

U.S. crude oil production reached record highs under the Biden Administration — and the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) forecasts that U.S. crude oil production will rise to a new high under the second Trump administration: https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/index.php.  

U.S. crude oil production (million barrels per day) was 12.0 in 2022, 12.9 in 2023 and 13.2  in 2024. The EIR forecasts that there will be a new record high of 13.5 million barrels per day in 2025 under Trump.

In other words, the U.S. has produced more crude oil over the past three years than any other country in history - and this year U.S. oil production is expected to reach a new record high in oil production unmatched by any other country. Yes, the U.S. is the world's largest oil producer as the climate crisis intensifies, as evidenced by the apocalyptic fires in the LA Area.  

Big Oil spent a record $31.4 million in first 9 months of 2024 in CA

Meanwhile in the “green” and “progressive” state of California, Big Oil really outdid itself on lobbying expenses in California in 2024. The oil industry spent a record $31.4 million in California lobbying efforts in just the first 9 months of 2024 in an effort to fend off polluter accountability and anti-price gouging measures. 

“This spending easily surpasses the previous annual record of $26.2 million set in 2017, with a full quarter of payments yet to be disclosed,” according to the Last Chance Alliance in a report released in early November 2024. “With a full quarter left—this year’s oil industry spending has reached new heights. Over the seven quarters of the current legislative session of 2023-2024, Big Oil has already invested $56.8 million in lobbying efforts, far exceeding the previous record of $44 million set during the 2017-2018 session.”

California’s 2024 third-quarter disclosures reveal that the oil and gas industry spent an unprecedented $16.1 million on lobbying and influence activities from July through September.

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), Chevron, and Aera Energy—now merged into California Resources Corporation—collectively spent $14.5 million. WSPA topped the lobbying spending spree with an amazing $10,121,571. Chevron came in second in spending with $4,106,389, while Aera Energy came in third with $302,093.

We won't know the total of money spent on lobbying in 2024 until Feb. 1, 2025 when the data is available on the California Secretary of State’s website. When that data becomes available, I will post it here.