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Senate Democrats opened an investigation on Thursday into former President Donald J. Trump’s meeting with oil and gas executives last month to determine whether Mr. Trump offered a “policies-for-money transaction” when he asked for $1 billion for his 2024 campaign so he could retake the White House and delete President Biden’s climate regulations.
The investigation is the second congressional inquiry into the April 11 fund-raising dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida. Over a chopped steak dinner, Mr. Trump told about 20 oil and gas executives that they would save far more than $1 billion in avoided taxes and legal fees after he repealed environmental regulations, according to several people who were present and who requested anonymity to discuss a private event.
The former president has vowed to “drill, baby, drill” if he wins in November. He has made no secret of his plans to end Mr. Biden’s policies that support wind and solar energy as well as electric vehicles.
On Wednesday Mr. Trump headlined a fund-raiser for MAGA Inc., a super PAC, that was hosted by three oil executives at a five-star hotel in Houston. One host was Kelcy Warren, a billionaire who owns a pipeline empire with an ambitious international expansion plan that depends on new export terminals. Mr. Biden paused permits for new terminals in January. Another was Harold G. Hamm, one of the pioneers of the shale oil boom that turned the United States into the world’s largest crude producer. The third, Vicki Hollub, leads Occidental Petroleum, a Houston-based oil company.
In letters sent Thursday morning to top executives of eight oil companies and a trade group, the chairmen of two Senate committees, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, sought details of the executives’ participation in the meeting and accused them and Mr. Trump of engaging in a quid pro quo.
“Time and time again, both Mr. Trump and the U.S. oil and gas industry have proved they are willing to sell out Americans to pad their own pockets,” the senators wrote to companies.
They accused the industry and the Trump campaign of “conferring on how to trade campaign cash for policy changes.”
None of the companies responded to a request for comment. Andrea Woods, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s main lobbying group, said in a statement, “This is yet another election-year stunt to distract from America’s need for more energy, including more oil and natural gas, to power our economy and combat persistent inflation.”
At the Mar-a-Lago dinner, Mr. Trump promised to immediately end the Biden administration’s pause on permits for new facilities that export liquefied natural gas, according to people who attended the meeting. That issue has galvanized the oil and gas industry against Mr. Biden, according to industry lobbyists.
Mr. Biden hit pause on new permits in January, saying he wanted his administration to study how gas exports affect climate change, the economy and national security. On Thursday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told Congress the pause would be lifted by early 2025.
Mr. Trump also criticized Mr. Biden’s restrictions on drilling on federal lands and in federal waters and promised to “bring back” the energy industry. (In fact, the oil and gas production have set records under the Biden administration and the United States is the world’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas. Even with the pause on permits for new export terminals, the United States is still on track to nearly double its export capacity by 2027 because of projects already permitted and under construction.)
Lawmakers wrote to the chief executives of Cheniere Energy Inc., Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, Continental Resources, EQT Corporation, Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum and Venture Global, as well as the president of the American Petroleum Institute.
Mr. Whitehouse, who leads the Senate Committee on the Budget, and Mr. Wyden, head of the Senate Committee on Finance, asked for copies of any draft executive orders, regulatory proposals or other policy-related documents that the companies may have created “for the purpose of potential use in a possible Trump administration.”
They are also seeking details of all campaign donations made by the companies, or any affiliated political action committees, to support Mr. Trump.
The joint inquiry is the second congressional examination of the April 11 fund-raising dinner. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, is seeking similar information from the companies.
Such letters typically are the first step before subpoenas can be issued. Because Democrats do not control the House, Mr. Raskin would not have the power to subpoena companies. In the Senate, where Democrats have the majority, Mr. Whitehouse or Mr. Wyden would be able to take such a step if they felt information was not forthcoming.
The investigation comes amid renewed attention to the cost of gasoline ahead of summer, when Americans tend to drive more. The Biden administration this week said it would sell one million barrels of gasoline over the coming weeks from a strategic reserve in the Northeast in a bid to lower prices at the pump. (The sale of the gasoline and the closure of the reserve was mandated by Congress.)
Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and the majority leader, on Thursday called for an investigation into the consolidation of the oil and gas industry and said oil executives were “basking in record profits while hard-working Americans feel the pinch of high prices at the pump.”
In October, Exxon Mobil announced it was acquiring Pioneer Natural Resources for $59.5 billion. That same month Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, said it had agreed to acquire Hess, a medium-size rival, in an all-stock deal valued at $53 billion.
Mr. Schumer said he intended next week to ask the Department of Justice to “investigate and prosecute collusion and price-fixing that may have increased gasoline, fuel, and energy costs.”
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