Big Oil wants Donald Trump to keep parts of Joe Biden’s climate law

Former President Donald Trump has publicly criticized the incumbent’s signature climate bill and its clean energy benefits. But even the oil lobby apparently wants to save the Deflation Act — just without some of the benefits for rival industries and products.

Executives at oil giants Exxon Mobil (XOM), Phillips 66 (PSX), and Occidental Petroleum (OXY) touted the benefits of IRAs in conversations with the Trump campaign, The Wall Street Journal rEPORTS. The 2022 legislation provides $369 billion in clean energy tax breaks and subsidies. It also pushed companies – including those in the oil industry – to invest 128 billion dollars in projects working on renewable fuels, carbon capture and other technologies.

Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub told the Republican presidential candidate in May that IRA tax credits helped the company invest in carbon capture, which allows companies to collect carbon directly from the air, the Journal reports. Exxon, which has committed to invest 15 billion dollars to reduce carbon emissions through new investments, also told Trump’s team he wanted to save parts of the IRA.

The oil lobby would certainly welcome the removal of some aspects of the IRA, particularly the tax credits for renewable energy and electric vehicles. The EV industry was by far the largest beneficiary of the IRA, which led to $77.7 billion in investment across 143 projects.

But Trump, at least publicly, did not distinguish between what he would cut and what he would save in the bill, although he criticized funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and electric vehicle tax credits. In recent months, it has pledged cancel any earmarked funding that isn’t spent before he potentially returns to the White House and “impose an immediate moratorium” on new spending and grants.

“To further beat inflation, my plan will end the Green New Deal, which I call the Green New Scam,” Trump said last month at the Economic Club of New York, referring to the IRA. “It’s actually setting us back as opposed to moving us forward,” he added.

Trump went out of his way to justify the oil lobby, which spent about $200 million on lobbying and donated nearly $47 million to Republicans in the last two years, this electoral cycle.

At a meeting with industry executives in April, he PROVIDED an “agreement to “immediately reverse dozens” of Biden’s environmental rules if he could raise $1 billion for his campaign. He also proposed auctioning off more oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico and lifting restrictions on drilling in the Alaskan Arctic as part of his “drill, chicken, drill” promises.

His White House rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, touted the benefits of the IRA on the campaign trail, often pointing to its benefits for manufacturers. If elected, she pledged to continue supporting clean energy investments.