During his campaign to return to the White House, Donald Trump made a heavy appeal to oil and gas industry executives, asking them during an April dinner at Mar-a-Lago to raise $1 billion for him with the expectation that he would roll back environmental regulations. Donors in the fossil fuel industry did open their wallets for the Republican at the top of the ticket, with the New York Times estimating Trump’s haul from oil and gas interests at more than $75 million.
As promised, President Trump moved immediately to begin rolling back Biden-era rules curbing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting electric vehicles. His efforts are being backed by one of the largest fossil fuel industry lobbying groups, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), which spent a record high amount on lobbying last year to keep U.S. consumers burning fuel in cars and trucks, even as the costs of climate change mount.
Last March, the Biden administration finalized a far-reaching rule to ramp down U.S. greenhouse gas emissions: an EPA standard that would increasingly limit the pollution belching out of tailpipes into the atmosphere. For model years 2027-2032, vehicle manufacturers would have to meet new average emissions standards for their fleets of cars, SUVs, light pickup trucks, medium-duty large pickups, and vans, helping to keep the U.S. in line with international climate goals by the end of this decade. According to the EPA, the rule, which is technology agnostic, would boost EVs to be up to 56% of new passenger vehicles sold from 2030-2032, and new hybrid vehicles would make up an additional 16% of sales.
On Day One, President Trump signed an executive order that says it is the policy of the United States to eliminate what he calls “the electric vehicle (EV) mandate,” a reference to Biden’s emissions rules. The Trump-favored term is misleading, because no such mandate exists—if the rule was to stay in effect, tons of new gas-powered cars will still be sold, just not the majority. The transportation sector, including car and truck exhaust, is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the economy, according to EPA figures.
Trump’s move to begin repealing the EPA’s emissions rule was high on the policy wish list of the American Petroleum institute (API), a fossil fuel industry lobbying group.
But it was the fuelmaker lobbying group AFPM, whose members include oil giants like ExxonMobil and fuel refiner Valero Energy, that most increased its lobbying spending as it fought against the vehicle emissions standards. The trade association AFPM absolutely shattered its federal lobbying spending in 2024, reaching nearly $20.7 million—close to tripling its previous high from 2023. During the first six months of the year, AFPM’s lobbying skyrocketed to $19 million.
Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, said of Trump’s rollback of clean car policies, “That’s a victory for his cronies in the oil and auto industries but may well leave his voters with buyer’s remorse. Consumers will pay more at the pump, automakers will lose EV buyers, and health care costs will go up from people breathing dirtier air.”
