Donald Trump touts fossil fuel agenda in bid for cash from Texas oil donors

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Donald Trump touted his pro-fossil fuel agenda and accused President Joe Biden of holding back the US’s oil and gas industry on Wednesday during a closed-door meeting in Midland, Texas, where he courted deep-pocketed industry barons for cash.

At a private fundraiser in the west Texas oil city, where tickets went for almost $1mn each, the Republican presidential candidate told donors the US “could not be in a worse position as far as energy security goes”, according to people who were in the room.

Trump hit out at Biden’s decision to release oil from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in a new Republican attack line echoing comments from shale magnate Harold Hamm in an interview on Tuesday with the Financial Times. 

The former president’s pitch to oil donors came as he raced through Texas on Wednesday in a bid to rustle up more cash and close the fundraising gap with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris as the tight race for the White House enters its final month.  

Trump has tried to make fossil fuels central to his campaign, railing against Biden’s “war on American energy” even as US oil and gas production has hit record highs during the current administration.

The lunch event at the plush country club in Midland was chaired by Javaid Anwar, chief executive of Midland Energy and one of Trump’s biggest industry supporters, and his wife, Vicky, alongside Bubba Saulsbury of construction group Saulsbury Industries and Doug Scharbauer, another prominent local oilman and horse breeder. 

According to an invitation seen by the FT, event chairs paid $924,600 per couple; co-chairs $300,000 per couple; and regular sponsors $25,000 per couple. Photos with the former president cost $50,000 each. 

The former president has curried favour with US oil executives with his vow, if elected, to rip up environmental regulations imposed by the Biden administration and encourage companies to “drill, baby, drill”.

Kirk Edwards, an oil executive in neighbouring Odessa who attended the event, said it was “a spectacular day” for the local industry.

“It’s just good that he wants to hear from the constituents he has out here what the problems are on the horizon and what we need to do about securing our energy future for the United States,” Edwards told the FT. 

The oil industry has proved fertile fundraising territory for the Republican candidate as executives smart over environmental restrictions imposed by the Biden administration that they say will hinder investment. 

Many in the sector were initially reluctant to back Trump for a second term, favouring more traditional Republicans, including Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.

Several prominent executives unsuccessfully urged Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin to run against Trump for the Republican nomination.

The industry has since rallied around Trump.

Despite surging output and bumper profits for producers during the Biden administration, the president’s efforts to slow lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and a pause on new licenses for liquefied natural gas plants have frustrated executives.

Trump’s descriptions of climate change as a “hoax” and Biden’s clean energy programme as a “scam” have also drawn backing from some people in the fossil fuel industry.

But the support among some executives is tepid. “I’ll vote for him, but I’m not giving him a red cent,” said one Midland executive, who declined to attend the lunch and described himself as a “Reagan Republican”.

“He ‘gets’ the oil industry because they give him lots of campaign contributions,” he added, questioning Trump’s understanding of the sector.

Another prominent Texas executive bemoaned the president’s vow to let companies “drill, baby, drill” to bring down prices at the pump — a pledge that would raise costs for companies while driving down profits.

“Don’t come here and tell us you want $2 gasoline. We don’t want fucking $2 gasoline . . . shut up about ‘drill, baby, drill’,” he said.