This is the fourth part of an EarthRights series on criminalization.
Criminalization occurs when powerful politicians and business leaders weaponize the legal system to silence their critics. This can include passing laws that restrict free speech and peaceful protest, imposing harsh penalties for civil disobedience, and using baseless allegations to subject targets to costly and lengthy legal proceedings.
In the United States, the days are growing shorter, inboxes are filling with out-of-office replies, and many people are turning their attention to the forthcoming festivities. While many begin to switch off for the holiday season, fossil fuel lobbyists are hard at work. After their record presence at the UN climate summit, where more than 1,600 industry representatives gathered, these lobbyists have remained busy in Washington, D.C., quietly advancing their agenda.
To understand what fossil fuel lobbyists are putting on their holiday wish list, we took a look at the most recent lobbying disclosures published by four major industry groups: the American Petroleum Institute, the American Gas Association, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, and the National Mining Association. Through these documents, we were able to identify over 200 legislative and regulatory priorities that these lobbyists have pursued in Congress, at the White House, and across the federal government in recent months.
The Big Ask: Push Pollution Costs onto Communities While Subsidizing Fossil Fuels
Even though the season of giving is upon us, fossil fuel companies are asking for a lot. Across the board, they’re calling on the U.S. government to strip away protections for communities’ health, safety, and the environment, while seeking financial benefit for themselves through tax avoidance, subsidies, and even taking advantage of certain types of climate legislation (yes, really). In effect, the fossil fuel industry’s wish list pushes a double cost on Americans, asking that taxpayers pay to clean up the pollution caused by corporations, while companies receive cash handouts that feed into their record-breaking profits. We’ve condensed fossil fuel companies’ current lobbying priorities into these main asks:
- Pollution Free-for-All: Take an Axe to the Federal Government’s Core Environmental Laws
Fossil fuel companies are spearheading an effort to severely curtail much of the longstanding environmental legislation that sets minimum standards for infrastructure project safety and environmental protection. Framed by industry lobbyists as “permitting reform,” the bills seek to gut these linchpin environmental standards:
- The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is one of the most important environmental laws in the United States and has influenced over one hundred similar laws around the world. In the world of infrastructure, NEPA requires government agencies to conduct an environmental impact assessment of proposed projects before approving permits. These assessments are one of the most important tools for protecting communities from the health, safety, and environmental harms of development projects. NEPA has inspired similar practices used by the World Bank Group and international financial institutions worldwide. The SPEED Act seeks to dramatically reduce the number of projects subject to the NEPA process, limit which environmental impacts get assessed, restrict communities’ ability to challenge permitting decisions, and shift from a science-driven approach to one that defers to the company’s profit-seeking goals.
- The Clean Water Act governs water pollution in the U.S. All fossil fuel lobbyists reviewed here have engaged in lobbying in support of the PERMIT Act, which the NGO Clean Water Action calls the “Permission to Pollute” Act. The bill would exclude many of America’s streams and wetlands from being subject to the Clean Water Act’s protections, limit the use of cutting-edge water treatment technologies, and allow companies to keep secret some of the pollutants they are dumping into waterways.
Fossil fuel lobbyists are also working on over a dozen bills and regulatory efforts that seek to reduce Clean Air Act oversight, remove limits on soot pollution, and roll back greenhouse gas reporting for fossil fuel companies.
- Move Away From Clean Energy While Pushing False Climate Solutions
Fossil fuel companies’ lobbying priorities reflect an interesting tension: as they lobby for legislation that preferentially benefits fossil fuels over cleaner energy solutions, they’re also cashing in on climate legislation by advocating for false climate solutions.
Several lobbying efforts are underway to stop state and local governments from reducing their constituents’ dependency on fossil fuels. The legislation of choice for promoting fossil fuel usage varies by lobbying group, but notable efforts include a proposed ban on states’ or local governments’ ability to limit the use of fossil fuels in their jurisdictions (through the Energy Choice Act), the prevention of fossil fuel power plant retirement (Baseload Reliability Protection Act), and attempts to overturn the phase out of fossil fuels from federal buildings, among others.
At the same time, fossil fuel lobbyists have engaged heavily when Congress and state legislatures consider climate legislation, advocating for dubious methods of energy production and carbon capture as an alternative to reducing the use of fossil fuels. The goal is to stop stronger climate action in the near term by promising that unproven, future technologies will be able to solve the problem and to confuse the public by labeling their own business activities with clean-sounding names. For example, fossil fuel companies are currently working on efforts to promote the use of gas and hydrogen as supposed clean energy and build carbon capture pipelines. However, neither gas, hydrogen, nor carbon capture has proved to be a viable solution to the climate crisis at this time: all present significant climate risks in their own right, as well as safety risks for the communities directly impacted by them.
- More Subsidies, Fewer Taxes
Some consider money to be the best gift, and it seems that fossil fuel lobbyists would agree. The industry has relentlessly lobbied for (and received) subsidies from the federal government that artificially prop up fossil fuels and distort energy markets, all at the everyday taxpayer’s expense.
Should corporations that earn billions of dollars in profits each year while paying one of the world’s lowest tax rates receive additional government handouts? Apparently, many members of Congress think so. All four lobbying groups reported tax lobbying efforts tied to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut taxes for companies across sectors and gave fossil fuel companies particularly large subsidies while cutting clean energy incentives. Other efforts included lobbying relating to the corporate tax rate and the Inflation Reduction Act, which is another piece of legislation meant to encourage clean energy, not fossil fuels. Lobbyists also sought industry-specific financial benefits, with additional lobbying for coal lease federal royalties relief and drilling cost tax write-offs. These are subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, and allow companies to continue pursuing projects that might not have otherwise been profitable.
Leveraging Corporate Capture to Reframe Anti-Climate Action
Fossil fuel lobbyists’ asks are enabled and emboldened by a broader system of corporate capture. The fossil fuel industry has embedded people who advocate for their interests across the federal government and has strong support for its agenda in Congress and the White House, which are led by politicians it helped elect. This capture has allowed fossil fuel companies to achieve significant wins, from the proposed opening of offshore drilling and federal lands for coal mining to the blocking of wind and solar projects. They’ve also used this influence to push misleading language around their legislative efforts, framing the dismantlement of environmental protections as a common-sense response to government inefficiency.
How Fossil Fuel Companies Hide Their Anti-Climate Agenda
| They Say This… | To Evoke This… | When They Really Mean This. |
| Permitting Reform | – Reducing red tape and making government efficient again- Permitting is boring, no need to pay too much attention | – Dismantle NEPA, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act- Give companies free rein while removing communities’ access to information and opportunities for input |
| Reliable Energy | – Fear about energy availability- It’s time to move past the “clean” and “dirty” energy framework | – Subsidize coal, oil, and gas because they otherwise won’t be profitable- Require decrepit fossil fuel power plants to limp on, even though they pollute more and produce less. |
Releasing the Inner Grinch
Feel-good legislative-speak can’t erase the facts: The wish list of legislation and regulations that fossil fuel lobbyists are working on would drastically undermine the progress the U.S. has made so far to scale up clean energy and prepare for the climate crisis – while placing our economy at a competitive disadvantage as the rest of the world embraces new energy systems.
What’s more, fossil fuel companies continue to harm workers and communities across America, while making it more and more difficult to hold these corporations accountable. So far this year in the United States:
- Pipeline accidents killed 7 people and injured 28 others
- Coal mining accidents killed 8 people
- Pipeline companies spilled 3 million gallons of oil and experienced thousands of gas leaks
- Companies increased their coal pollution and emissions
Unfortunately, legislators are not as disciplined as we might like about using a naughty or nice list, so bad behavior alone does not void fossil fuel companies’ wish lists. Some legislators are still responsive to citizen input and pressure, however. Just last month, pipeline safety legislation moved forward in the Senate without language criminalizing free speech, thanks to the vocal efforts of those demanding that pipeline safety legislation actually focus on pipeline safety.
This responsiveness means that if there’s ever a time for your inner holiday Grinch to come out, this is it. Take the opportunity to blow off some seasonal steam by calling legislators to remind them who they work for. Stir up the family table with a discussion on what “permitting reform” actually means. Find out what projects are being proposed in your area, and make your voice heard.
From all of us at EarthRights, we hope that this season is a time of connection, reflection, and restoration. We’ll see you in 2026!
