'Quid pro quo:' Trump vowed to gut climate laws in exchange for $1B from oil bosses

Last month, Donald Trump summoned a who's who of top oil and gas industry lobbyists and executives to the exclusive bribery palace he calls Mara Lago and proceeded to solicit $1 billion from fossil fuel companies. so that they could choose him, as multiple media outlets have done now. reported in return The Washington Post reports cites that he promised to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden's environmental rules and policies and prevent new ones from being enacted. The New York Times quotes Trump as telling the group that they should donate $1 billion to his presidential campaign because if he is elected, he would repeal environmental rules that he says hamper his industry.

He told executives that the amount of money they would save in taxes and legal fees after the regulations were repealed would cover more than a billion-dollar contribution. Now, to be clear, this is not actionable under the current law, particularly in the way the Supreme Court has come to define bribery as a crime that is extremely watered down these days, but in the common parliament it is a crux. political proquote that is so shocking that, while we don't know the sources of these articles, it sure seems like Trump's offer managed to surprise even a group of oil executives who are as accustomed to the cravenest parts of big money and politics as anyone. in all the country.

Lisa Fredman is the author of that piece for the New York Times where she covers

climate

policy and politics and she joins me now Lisa, it's great to have you. Could you just describe the environment to me? The conditions under which this event occurred. What was said to the people who were invited. Thank you very much for inviting me last month. Around April 11, several oil and gas company executives and lobbyists arrived in Maral Lago for what was described as an energy roundtable. They had chopped steak for dinner, according to what the people in the room told us.

Former President Donald Trump promised to unravel President Biden's

climate

change agenda. The first thing on the list they told us were the regulations that were recently implemented. Encouraging the use of electric vehicles. Wind energy was a target and, of course, a temporary ban that the Biden administration imposed on allowing new liquefied natural gas terminals. The president, the former president, then told the crowd that they told us that they should want to raise a billion dollars for him because this was going to help his industries and the money that they would get. It would save on taxes and legal fees, uh, fighting regulations would be dwarfed, so there are two contexts here, one is that the citizens joined before the citizens joined, this wouldn't even really be a plausible question, right ?

If you're trying to raise a billion dollars in hard money, you know the campaign is limited to $2,600 bytes, that's not going to happen. It's the environment we live in now where asking if bold is plausible in the sense that you know the American Petroleum Institute. We could funnel a billion dollars into something that some super package, certainly, you know, I would notice that the way it was conveyed to us was less like you do this for me, I'll do this for you and more of If you guys in the room should want to raise a billion dollars for this campaign because, uh, Trump two will be ready on day one to unravel the regulations and policies that are hurting their businesses.

One of the other interesting contexts here is that obviously I think the people in that room oppose Biden's climate agenda, on green energy, and they also oppose the regulatory stances that he took. offline Etc., true, but if I'm not mistaken, we are pumping more oil and gas than any country in history and they are making record profits, right, it's consistent, isn't it? You know you're absolutely right, the Biden Administration. he's overseeing record oil and gas production, he doesn't get any credit for that from the oil and gas industry, and he ALS, and you know, in the Administration he's been pretty quiet about that fact as well, you have to mention too, Uh, them.

We're not eager to tout that, you know, they're very concerned that environmental groups, especially young people, remain concerned about a number of green lights that the administration offered last year, particularly at Willow, a major oil development in Alaska there. a lot of lingering anger about that, especially among young people, um, and so we're finding out that the administration isn't out there telling people that they're doing a lot of development, but I suspect that the people who do know that are the people in that room. I think, and they can't believe it, they probably know that they are pumping more oil and gas and that they are doing quite well.

I mean, I think they know it, but they're still very angry with him, based on what I feel from people that I've talked to within the energy world in the US. You know, I've talked to executives at some of the major oil and gas companies that are very much in favor of the inflation reduction law. the Landmark climate law that has pumped 370, a few billion dollars into renewable energy, also carbon capture and storage, something, you know, something that the fossil fuel industry is eager for, too, direct air capture, also hydrogen, yes, at the same time, when President Biden made the decision to pause LG exports, it really struck a nerve within the oil and gas community that was already angry and frustrated by decisions like restricting drilling in the Gulf from Mexico and other places.

This has really struck a nerve and there has certainly been no credit given to the administration for the record oil and gas production that we are seeing right now. The oil industry's argument is that this is due to policies that preceded the Trump and Biden administration. Yeah, well, them. They're kind, they're gentle souls and they get very angry, uh, when, when things don't go their way, and maybe they get a billion dollars for the guy who promises the uh. agenda of your dreams lisa freedan thank you very much for