Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made a straightforward offer to some of the top fossil fuel executives in the United States during a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club last month, which marked the hottest April on record.
According to new reporting, Trump pledged to swiftly gut climate regulations put in place by the Biden administration if the oil and gas industry raises $1 billion for his 2024 presidential campaign.
The “remarkably blunt and transactional pitch,” reported by
The Washington Post, was Trump’s latest explicit statement of his intention to give the fossil fuel industry free rein to wreck the planet if he wins a second term in power. Executives from Exxon, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, and other prominent fossil fuel companies reportedly attended the Mar-a-Lago dinner.
Late last year, Trump said he would be a dictator on the first day of his second term, vowing to use his executive authority to “close the border” and “drill, drill, drill” for the fossil fuels that are driving global temperatures to catastrophic extremes and imperiling hopes for a livable future.
The Post reported Thursday that Trump said a $1 billion investment in his run against Democratic President Joe Biden would be a “deal” for Big Oil “because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him.”
“The contrast between the two candidates on climate policy could not be more stark,” the
Mail noted. “Biden has called global warming an ‘existential threat’ and over the last three years, his administration has finalized 100 new environmental regulations aimed at cutting air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, restricting toxic chemicals, and conserving public lands and waters. In comparison, Trump has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ and his administration weakened or wiped out more than 125 environmental rules and policies over four years.”
Will Bunch, a columnist for
The Philadelphia Inquirer, https://twitter.com/Will_Bunch/status/1788542332490363060 in response to the Mail‘s reporting that “you won’t read a more important story today.”
“Trump is willing to literally destroy the planet for $1 trillion,” Bunch added.
“Republicans want to sell you out to Big Oil to line their pockets.”
In recent months, Trump and his allies have laid
out how they intend to resume and accelerate that destructive deregulatory blitz if the former president wins another term in November.
Project 2025, a coalition of dozens of right-wing organizations including the Heritage Foundation, crafted a detailed presidential transition guide that calls for a dramatic expansion of US fossil fuel infrastructure, aggressive rollbacks of climate rules, and steep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Citing the
Mail‘s reporting, Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (DN.J.)
“Republicans want to sell you out to Big Oil to line their pockets,” said Pascrell.