Industry contributed $201m to re-election, $19m to inaugural fund
A report released Thursday by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, ranking member of the Senate environment and public works committee, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York details what the senators describe as the fossil fuel industry’s “expansive influence” over the Trump administration. The document points to a fundraiser Trump held at his Mar-a-Lago resort in April 2024 where, the senators report, he asked industry executives for $1 billion in campaign contributions in exchange for tax breaks and deregulations.
“Big oil delivered in the hundreds of millions,” the senators wrote. The Trump administration “has delivered right back, handing polluters benefits worth hundreds of billions of dollars,” according to the report. “That bargain came at a price, and American families are the ones paying it: higher energy bills and higher costs associated with increased damages from climate change and air and water pollution.”
The senators also cited the Trump administration’s “near-total refusal to cooperate with legitimate congressional oversight,” saying it “complicated” their investigation.
Reported industry contributions and administration appointments
In addition to the $201 million investment in Trump’s re-election campaign, the report documents $19 million in industry executive contributions to Trump’s inaugural fund. Trump appointed 26 senior officials — all of whom had previously worked for fossil fuel, chemical, or other polluting industries — across agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency and the energy and interior departments, according to the senators.
Estimated $190 billion in tax breaks and subsidies
The $190 billion estimate is calculated from existing tax breaks and subsidies over the next 10 years combined with new benefits delivered by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed last July, the report said. That figure derives from an analysis by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for legislation he proposed with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota to eliminate industry “handouts.”
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act created a $1 billion direct subsidy fund for fossil fuels, using Defense Production Act authority to “funnel taxpayer money into propping up fossil fuel projects” considered economically risky by private capital markets. The law also provides a permanent 20% business income deduction for oil and gas companies, which the senators estimate will cost the government $737 billion overall.
The administration “abused” the Clean Air Act by exempting more than 180 polluting facilities, the report said, noting that the rules at issue “were designed to limit emissions of known neurotoxin and carcinogens.”
Rollback of vehicle emissions standards
The Trump administration repealed federal vehicle greenhouse gas standards and moved to roll back emissions rules for power plants and oil and gas facilities. While the administration estimated the changes would save Americans $1.3 trillion, the senators cite an EPA estimate of $1.5 trillion in additional fuel, repair, and maintenance costs for consumers. Separately, the EPA estimated the repeal would result in at least $580 billion in additional fuel costs over the next three decades — a policy the senators describe as potentially the “single largest payback” the Trump administration has provided the fossil fuel industry.
The report also found that the Trump administration’s policies would curb competition from clean energy, increase gas and coal consumption, and “force Americans to spend at least $580bn in added fuel costs alone over the next three decades.”
$1.8 billion in wind project cancellations
The administration’s attacks on fossil fuel competitors include paying companies $1.8 billion in taxpayer funds to cancel wind projects across the country, the report said. As of May, more than 160 projects — all proposed on private land — had been frozen, representing approximately 30 gigawatts of generating capacity, $54 billion in capital investment, and enough electricity to power more than 8.5 million homes.
The senators cite Trump’s earlier public statement: “My goal is to not let any windmill be built.” The buyouts, according to the report, follow a consistent pattern: “taxpayer money is used to buy off fossil fuel’s low-cost clean energy competition — a double hit, first to the public treasury, then to the electric rates.”
Decline in environmental enforcement
In the second Trump administration, environmental enforcement has also weakened, the senators found. The Department of Justice brought 76 percent fewer civil environmental enforcement cases than during Joe Biden’s first year in office and 81 percent fewer than during Trump’s first term, according to the report.
Projected costs to American households
The report stated that Trump’s “polluter-first agenda exposed Americans to price shocks on fossil fuels, heating, food production, and electricity; increased the cost of trucking food to grocery stores; and raised fertilizer prices for farmers.”
The report cites modeling estimates that average household energy bills could be $78 to $192 higher per year by 2035. Industrial energy costs are projected to rise by between $7 billion and $11 billion over the same period.
Fossil fuel-related air pollution and climate-related harms cost approximately $820 billion annually, or roughly $2,500 per person in additional health costs each year, according to the report. “Even if Americans do not suffer from polluter-driven heart or respiratory disease, they pay more as health insurance companies spread around those costs,” the report said.
Homeowner insurance costs are also rising as climate-driven disasters become more frequent and severe, the report said. The average American homeowner now pays about $2,948 per year in insurance premiums, nearly 12 percent higher than one year ago. The senators also report that in 2025, fossil fuel companies paid more to shareholders than the direct damages attributable to extreme weather in the United States, despite surges in hurricanes, wildfires, floods, heatwaves, and droughts.
The senators said the sharpest increases could fall on Republican-led states that lack state-level policies supporting renewable energy development.
White House response
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the Guardian: “These Democrat senators should do some self-reflection on their ties to the so-called ‘green’ energy industry. They wasted billions of American taxpayer dollars in the name of the Green New Scam.”
“While they are focused on a useless partisan report, the Trump administration is actively working to pass historic permitting reform to help improve energy infrastructure and lower costs,” Rogers said. The administration has characterized its “energy dominance” agenda as delivering for industry, energy workers, and saving the U.S. public money in energy costs.
Environmental advocacy responses
Climate Power spokesperson Alex Glass told the Guardian: “This report lays it out in black and white. The Trump administration isn’t setting energy policy; the fossil fuel industry is writing it for them. Fossil fuel money bought access, and fossil fuel executives got the keys to the agencies meant to regulate.”
Mahyar Sorour, director of beyond fossil fuels policy at the Sierra Club, said: “This report elevates a troubling reality: while fossil fuel companies throw money at politicians to fulfill polluters’ wishlists, American families are left paying for an energy system that puts corporate profits ahead of public health. It’s time to make polluters pay.”
David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s climate program, told the Guardian: “The campaign contributions to Donald Trump by big oil have paid dividends, and have allowed the fossil fuel industry to continue to pollute our communities … Every American family struggling with high costs is suffering because of the corrupt relationship between Donald Trump and the fossil fuel industry.”