Two months into
Donald Trump’s presidency, the
oil industry had reason to be pleased with Republican control in Washington, D.C. ExxonMobil’s former CEO had just been
confirmed as the secretary of State; congressional Republicans agreed to make it easier for oil giants
to hide payments to foreign governments; and the new Republican administration was already taking steps to roll back
all kinds of environmental safeguards.
It was against this backdrop that the White House issued a press statement touting ExxonMobil’s decision to expand investments in several Gulf Coast projects. As Mother Jones
discovered, part of the statement included language that was effectively identical to the language in Exxon’s own press release — leaving Team Trump and the oil company on the same page in a rather literal sense.
Seven years later, the problem is metastasizing: Politico reported this week that oil industry executives are writing up
presidential executive orders now, in the hopes that Trump will simply sign them if/when he returns to the White House.
Matthew Davis, vice president of federal policy at the League of Conservation Voters and a former EPA scientist, told Politico that an industry writing exact language for an incoming president to sign is “beyond the pale,” adding, “It is not shocking, but perhaps a little bold and gross that the oil industry is writing text for executive orders.”
www.politico.com
