GOP Lawmakers Lobby Oil Industry to Denounce Tax-and-Climate Bill
https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-lawmakers-lobby-oil-industry-to-denounce-tax-and-climate-bill-11659778202?mod=hp_lead_pos1
Democrats’ plan includes measures lauded by some in the oil-and-gas industry, frustrating Republicans
ongressional Republicans are ramping up pressure on the oil-and-gas industry to take an aggressive stance against the Democrats’ tax-and-climate bill, frustrated that the industry hasn’t done more to help Republicans defeat a cornerstone of President Biden’s agenda.
Minority leaders in both chambers are coordinating what one aide called “a full-court press,” cajoling lobbyists in Washington and energy executives around the country, according to aides and lobbyists familiar with the outreach.
Republicans have called and emailed the country’s largest oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp., and the industry’s largest trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, pressing for more forceful opposition to the compromise plan negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin, (D., W.Va.).
“The time is now for America’s energy producers to stand up and be very clear about how these destructive policies will raise prices, destroy jobs, and make us less secure,” Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said in a statement.
The oil-and-gas industry has had a mixed response to the Senate plan. For example, some companies and trade groups have objected to a proposed tax on methane emissions, but natural-gas companies and others have applauded a promised companion measure pushed by Mr. Manchin to streamline permitting for new pipelines.
At the insistence of Mr. Manchin, who comes from a major coal- and gas-producing state, the legislative package’s $369 billion in spending on energy will go to oil, gas and coal operations along with clean power.
After saying little about the bill for a week, the American Petroleum Institute came out forcefully against it on Friday.
“Amid a global energy crisis, this bill’s provisions miss the mark on providing immediate energy relief for American families and businesses and discourage necessary investment in America’s oil and natural gas, which provide nearly 70 percent of America’s energy needs,” a spokesman for the group said.
An Exxon spokesman said the company opposes taxes and other provisions that could make U.S. businesses less competitive. But earlier in the week, in a quarterly conference call with analysts, Chief Executive Darren Woods also called the bill “a step in the right direction,” drawing attention and ire from Republicans around Capitol Hill, lobbyists and aides said.
“I think it is encouraging to see…the desire to try to catalyze investments,” Mr. Woods said after lauding provisions in the bill designed to reduce emissions by expanding use of carbon-capture technology, biofuels and hydrogen.
That led staff in House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.)’s office to email and call Exxon executives to tell them Mr. Woods’s comments weren’t helping their effort, according to people familiar with the matter.
Lauren Fine, a spokesman for Mr. Scalise, said a “key function of the Whip Office is coalition-building with outside groups and business organizations, so our office is in regular contact with key industries and stakeholders on any given bill.”
On Thursday morning Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee sent an email to industry representatives, calling out Exxon and others including BP PLC, Shell PLC and AARP, the Washington-based advocacy group for older adults, for supporting some provisions of the bill.
“Stakeholder support for ‘just one’ of the included provisions will be classified as support for passage of the bill in its entirety; you can’t get your one without sacrificing for the others,” said the email that went to people at those companies.
The companies didn’t respond publicly to the email, but the U.S. arms of both BP and Shell on Friday signed on with 38 other companies in a letter supporting quick passage of the bill.
“The investments in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would reduce climate-related risks across the economy while combating inflation, reducing costs for families, and improving energy security,” said the letter, organized by two business-oriented climate groups. “While these investments must be paid for, the economic benefits outweigh the costs.”
Staff for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) have also reached out to industry representatives, frustrated that some lobbyists have publicly supported provisions in the bill, according to people familiar with the matter.
A spokesman for Mr. McConnell declined to comment.
And Republican congressional staff in both the House and Senate separately reached out to trade groups and lobbyists, including API, on what the bill may mean for gasoline prices and U.S. production, according to people familiar with the matter. Industry officials declined, frustrating aides who expect the bill to raise prices and lower production and want data showing that to use as political ammunition, the people said.
“I guess they want to lose,” one aide said about the decision.
The oil lobby was once a lockstep ally with Republicans, forming a potent team that helped kill Congress’s first major attempt at climate legislation a decade ago. But in recent years Republicans have become frustrated by the industry’s divided interests and a push to address climate change. It has led members of Congress to lobby and lecture industry lobbyists in recent years just as frequently as the other way around, lobbyists said.
Republicans feel especially emboldened now ahead of midterm elections and after months of weak poll numbers for Democrats, lobbyists and aides said. Their recent threats to industry executives have often included pointed reminders that Republicans may soon retake at least part control of Congress, lobbyists and aides said.
Executives “all know the Republicans, certainly likely to retake the House in November, are making a list and checking it twice for companies or trades that allow themselves to be seduced by the Democrats,” said Stephen Brown, a Democrat and former lobbyist for refining interests who now runs the consulting firm RBJ Strategies LLC. “No one wants to be on that list.”
Several top lobbyists said that industrywide there is a sense of resignation when it comes to the climate bill and their top goal is now to manage political risk. While they don’t want to irritate Republicans, many now expect the climate bill to pass and don’t want to irritate Democrats either, lobbyists said.
“Are we going to waste a huge expenditure fighting it when we’re going to lose anyhow? Probably not,” a lobbyist for one company said.
The industry is also starting to hear similar requests from Mr. Manchin, who is unhappy his allies in industry aren’t more openly supportive of the bill, lobbyists said. His staff has directly asked trade groups to be more vocal, but opinions among the members of those groups were too divided for them to say more, industry lobbyists said.
Mr. Manchin made a similar point over dinner at Joe’s seafood restaurant near the White House Monday night with the executive chairman of Coterra Energy Inc. Dan Dinges, EQT Corp. Chief Executive Toby Rice and executives from Equitrans Midstream Corp. and Diversified Energy Co., according to people familiar with the meeting.
Mr. Manchin told them he needed them to speak out about all that he did and the improvements in the package for industry after months of negotiations.
The executives said they still had concerns about some provisions in the bill, according to one of the people.
Asked for comment, a spokeswoman for Mr. Manchin said that support for the bill “from energy leaders across the spectrum is evidence of the quality of this legislation.”
Democrats’ plan includes measures lauded by some in the oil-and-gas industry, frustrating Republicans
ongressional Republicans are ramping up pressure on the oil-and-gas industry to take an aggressive stance against the Democrats’ tax-and-climate bill, frustrated that the industry hasn’t done more to help Republicans defeat a cornerstone of President Biden’s agenda.
Minority leaders in both chambers are coordinating what one aide called “a full-court press,” cajoling lobbyists in Washington and energy executives around the country, according to aides and lobbyists familiar with the outreach.
Republicans have called and emailed the country’s largest oil company, Exxon Mobil Corp., and the industry’s largest trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, pressing for more forceful opposition to the compromise plan negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin, (D., W.Va.).
“The time is now for America’s energy producers to stand up and be very clear about how these destructive policies will raise prices, destroy jobs, and make us less secure,” Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said in a statement.
The oil-and-gas industry has had a mixed response to the Senate plan. For example, some companies and trade groups have objected to a proposed tax on methane emissions, but natural-gas companies and others have applauded a promised companion measure pushed by Mr. Manchin to streamline permitting for new pipelines.
At the insistence of Mr. Manchin, who comes from a major coal- and gas-producing state, the legislative package’s $369 billion in spending on energy will go to oil, gas and coal operations along with clean power.
After saying little about the bill for a week, the American Petroleum Institute came out forcefully against it on Friday.
“Amid a global energy crisis, this bill’s provisions miss the mark on providing immediate energy relief for American families and businesses and discourage necessary investment in America’s oil and natural gas, which provide nearly 70 percent of America’s energy needs,” a spokesman for the group said.
An Exxon spokesman said the company opposes taxes and other provisions that could make U.S. businesses less competitive. But earlier in the week, in a quarterly conference call with analysts, Chief Executive Darren Woods also called the bill “a step in the right direction,” drawing attention and ire from Republicans around Capitol Hill, lobbyists and aides said.
“I think it is encouraging to see…the desire to try to catalyze investments,” Mr. Woods said after lauding provisions in the bill designed to reduce emissions by expanding use of carbon-capture technology, biofuels and hydrogen.
That led staff in House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.)’s office to email and call Exxon executives to tell them Mr. Woods’s comments weren’t helping their effort, according to people familiar with the matter.
Lauren Fine, a spokesman for Mr. Scalise, said a “key function of the Whip Office is coalition-building with outside groups and business organizations, so our office is in regular contact with key industries and stakeholders on any given bill.”
On Thursday morning Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee sent an email to industry representatives, calling out Exxon and others including BP PLC, Shell PLC and AARP, the Washington-based advocacy group for older adults, for supporting some provisions of the bill.
“Stakeholder support for ‘just one’ of the included provisions will be classified as support for passage of the bill in its entirety; you can’t get your one without sacrificing for the others,” said the email that went to people at those companies.
The companies didn’t respond publicly to the email, but the U.S. arms of both BP and Shell on Friday signed on with 38 other companies in a letter supporting quick passage of the bill.
“The investments in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would reduce climate-related risks across the economy while combating inflation, reducing costs for families, and improving energy security,” said the letter, organized by two business-oriented climate groups. “While these investments must be paid for, the economic benefits outweigh the costs.”
Staff for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) have also reached out to industry representatives, frustrated that some lobbyists have publicly supported provisions in the bill, according to people familiar with the matter.
A spokesman for Mr. McConnell declined to comment.
And Republican congressional staff in both the House and Senate separately reached out to trade groups and lobbyists, including API, on what the bill may mean for gasoline prices and U.S. production, according to people familiar with the matter. Industry officials declined, frustrating aides who expect the bill to raise prices and lower production and want data showing that to use as political ammunition, the people said.
“I guess they want to lose,” one aide said about the decision.
The oil lobby was once a lockstep ally with Republicans, forming a potent team that helped kill Congress’s first major attempt at climate legislation a decade ago. But in recent years Republicans have become frustrated by the industry’s divided interests and a push to address climate change. It has led members of Congress to lobby and lecture industry lobbyists in recent years just as frequently as the other way around, lobbyists said.
Republicans feel especially emboldened now ahead of midterm elections and after months of weak poll numbers for Democrats, lobbyists and aides said. Their recent threats to industry executives have often included pointed reminders that Republicans may soon retake at least part control of Congress, lobbyists and aides said.
Executives “all know the Republicans, certainly likely to retake the House in November, are making a list and checking it twice for companies or trades that allow themselves to be seduced by the Democrats,” said Stephen Brown, a Democrat and former lobbyist for refining interests who now runs the consulting firm RBJ Strategies LLC. “No one wants to be on that list.”
Several top lobbyists said that industrywide there is a sense of resignation when it comes to the climate bill and their top goal is now to manage political risk. While they don’t want to irritate Republicans, many now expect the climate bill to pass and don’t want to irritate Democrats either, lobbyists said.
“Are we going to waste a huge expenditure fighting it when we’re going to lose anyhow? Probably not,” a lobbyist for one company said.
The industry is also starting to hear similar requests from Mr. Manchin, who is unhappy his allies in industry aren’t more openly supportive of the bill, lobbyists said. His staff has directly asked trade groups to be more vocal, but opinions among the members of those groups were too divided for them to say more, industry lobbyists said.
Mr. Manchin made a similar point over dinner at Joe’s seafood restaurant near the White House Monday night with the executive chairman of Coterra Energy Inc. Dan Dinges, EQT Corp. Chief Executive Toby Rice and executives from Equitrans Midstream Corp. and Diversified Energy Co., according to people familiar with the meeting.
Mr. Manchin told them he needed them to speak out about all that he did and the improvements in the package for industry after months of negotiations.
The executives said they still had concerns about some provisions in the bill, according to one of the people.
Asked for comment, a spokeswoman for Mr. Manchin said that support for the bill “from energy leaders across the spectrum is evidence of the quality of this legislation.”
