Press Release
For Immediate Release: May 23, 2025
Contact: Patrick Davis, Public Citizen pdavis@citizen.org
Erika Seiber , Friends of the Earth eseiber@foe.org
House Bill Expands Handouts to Fossil Fuel Polluters and Eviscerates Clean Energy Transition
New report details harms of Bountiful Oil Billionaire Bonanza
WASHINGTON — The fossil fuel industry is set to receive massive concessions from Congress through a series of provisions included in President Trump’s budget and tax package, according to a report out today from United to End Polluter Handouts, a new campaign to combat the massive subsidies the U.S. government gives to fossil fuel companies.
According to the report, “One Bountiful Oil Billionaire Bonanza,” Trump’s efforts to consolidate massive cuts to health care and food assistance programs to pass along a gigantic tax cut to the wealthiest Americans would sacrifice America’s clean energy transition to pay for tax breaks and handouts for polluters.
The budget deal approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday would allow fossil fuel polluters to profit via a series of new loopholes, including:
Providing instant tax giveaways to pipeline companies, gas exporters, and oil refiners.
Slashing fines for discharging methane gas into the atmosphere.
Allowing fossil fuel companies to pay less for drilling for oil and gas on public lands.
Opening new tax loopholes and subsidies for oil and gas pipeline companies.
While the bill eviscerates incentives to move to clean energy, it largely preserves unworkable false solutions to the climate crisis long-favored by the oil industry, including capturing carbon from power plants and other industrial sources. Preserving these giveaways was recently highlighted by industry leaders as necessary for fossil fuel expansion.
“Fossil fuel insiders have lobbied for decades to win some of the concessions that Trump’s Congress is about to shovel out to them, and extreme House Republican lawmakers are only too happy to oblige,” said Alan Zibel, research director at Public Citizen and co-author of the report. “Communities across the nation will nurse the scars of pollution and climate change in this budget deal long after the fossil fuel industry cashes its check.”
“If this bill isn’t stopped, the next wave of polluter handouts will be paid for with cuts to Medicaid and food stamps,” said Lukas Shankar-Ross, deputy director of climate and energy justice at Friends of the Earth U.S. “This bill is a dream come true for fossil fuel oligarchs.”
After a lengthy late-night negotiation, Republicans in the House of Representatives approved their version of the budget and tax deal in the early morning hours on Thursday. The deal will move to the Senate in the coming weeks.
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