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For Immediate Release
January, 17 2025, 08:30am EDT
Contact:
Email: info [at] priceofoil.org
Oil Change International Statement on Trump's Day One Assault on Climate Action
As Donald Trump prepares to take office as the 47th president, fossil fuel executives are expecting a return on the $75 million they spent to elect him. Trump's Day One executive orders represent a full-scale attack on climate progress and communities across the world.
In response, Oil Change International Executive Director Elizabeth Bast said:
"As Trump returns to office, we're witnessing the deadly price tag of fossil fuel industry control over our democracy. From the still-burning wildfires in Los Angeles to the destruction left by Hurricane Helene in Asheville, to the unprecedented droughts and floods devastating Southern Africa, the climate crisis is accelerating. These deadly disasters are driven by fossil fuel executives who put their profits ahead of our future.
“The fossil fuel industry invested $75 million to secure Trump's victory, and now they're expecting a return on that investment. By appointing fossil fuel CEOs to key Cabinet positions and planning to dismantle critical environmental protections, Trump is handing these companies a blank check to expand their operations at precisely the moment we need to end fossil fuel extraction.
“But the greed of fossil fuel billionaires and their political allies cannot overcome the power of our movements. In communities across America and around the world, we're standing up not just to toxic fossil fuel projects, but to the bigotry, hatred, and division that props up corporate power. Every pipeline we stop, every permit we block, and every community we protect brings us closer to the just, fossil-free future we know is possible. We've faced hostile administrations before, and we know that when we stand together, we win."
Trump's Day One Climate Destruction Package includes:
- Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
At COP28, governments committed to transition away from fossil fuels. Now, countries must submit national plans to end fossil fuel expansion and seize the economic opportunities of renewables that the United States is abandoning. Oil Change International research shows that wealthy countries can mobilize trillions of dollars for climate action by ending fossil fuel handouts, making big polluters pay, and changing unfair global financial rules to bring jobs, clean air, and lower energy bills. None of this requires the United States being a member of the Paris Agreement. Global momentum to address the climate crisis will not be stopped by one man.
- Lifting the pause on new liquified natural gas (LNG) exports.
The Department of Energy’s new studies on LNG adds to the overwhelming evidence that U.S. LNG exports mean higher energy bills, accelerated climate chaos, toxic pollution in frontline communities, and LNG expansion outpacing global demand. In lifting the current pause on new LNG exports, Trump is putting his fossil fuel donors over the economic realities of LNG expansion and prioritizing fossil fuel industry profits over the public’s interest in lowering energy bills, clean air, clean water, and safety from climate disasters.
- Declaring an energy emergency to supercharge fossil fuel production.
Instead of addressing the real emergency of the climate crisis, like the ongoing fires in California, Trump’s plan to declare an energy emergency is another attempt to boost the profits of his fossil fuel donors rather than help the American people. United States production of oil and gas is already at a record high, while American jobs in oil and gas have declined and global demand for fossil fuels is expected to peak in the next five years. Over 90% of United States’ counties experienced a federally declared climate disaster between 2011 and 2023. Instead of pandering to the fossil fuel industry, our government should be responding to the real crisis at hand by funding disaster response and halting fossil fuel expansion.
- Public Lands Drilling Expansion
Any expansion of fossil fuel production is out of line with the 1.5ºC target to curb the impacts of the climate crisis, according to the International Energy Agency. Expanding drilling on public lands will mean more fires, floods, and toxic pollution.
- Keystone XL Pipeline Revival Attempt
Despite any potential executive orders from the Trump administration, significant barriers prevent the revival of the Keystone XL pipeline. TC Energy has withdrawn from the project and no longer maintains the necessary land easements for construction. Whether Trump wants it or not, the global energy transition is happening and fossil fuels will be phased out. Renewable energy is cheaper, cleaner, and safer, and the transition has become unstoppable. Trump was powerless to stop the collapse of coal in the United States, and he won’t be able to stand in the way of renewable energy.
Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.
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Will Climate-Driven Heatwave Help Make the Case Against Big Tech Data Centers?
As power grids become strained amid the latest US heatwave, residents of communities with data centers are being asked to make sacrifices in the form of cost, comfort, and potentially safety.
Jul 02, 2026
The rise of global temperatures has made oppressive summer heatwaves an annual occurrence, and for many Americans, air conditioning is no longer optional.
But as scorching temperatures bear down on the US once again this week, affecting more than 250 million people across the country, some are suddenly being forced to share the precious cool air with data centers that have popped up in their towns to power the breakneck build-out of artificial intelligence technology.
To keep their massive arrays of computer servers cool, these complexes require large amounts of energy even in normal times. But during a heatwave, the demand becomes even greater.
As power grids become strained, residents of communities with data centers are being asked to make sacrifices in the form of cost, comfort, and potentially safety.
In Henrico County, Virginia, which has 37 data centers, thousands of county employees received an email last week from County Manager John Vithoulkas warning them that beginning on July 1, the rate paid by "government and school facilities will increase dramatically—by 25%, increasing costs by an estimated $5 million next fiscal year."
"To mitigate the impact of higher electric costs, I am asking that we, collectively, make slight adjustments to conserve electricity across our individual workspaces,” he said in the email, which was obtained by 404 Media. “Turn off your lights when leaving your workspace, including when you leave for the day,” he continued. “Turn off your computers/laptops at the end of each workday. If your workspace has windows, adjust the blinds to manage heat from sunlight.”
He also informed them of the high cost of running "space heaters," which Frank Landymore of Futurism.com suggested was a thinly veiled way of telling residents to turn down the AC, since nobody would be using space heaters in 100-degree heat.
It was a signifier of what's happened across the entire mid-Atlantic grid, whose largest operator, PJM Interconnection, is experiencing record energy demand.
According to Reuters, the grid that supplies power to 67 million people has seen a roughly 1,000% increase in capacity prices since 2024 as a result of the AI boom, which is already being passed onto consumers in the form of higher bills.
To reduce the risk of outages caused by an overburdened grid, the US Department of Energy granted PJM the authority to require data centers to operate backup diesel generators.
Under the emergency order, Politico reported, data centers are allowed to produce enough diesel emissions that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would categorize it as a "possible human carcinogen."
The result has been what Shaolei Ren, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, told The Associated Press could be “a disaster for the local air quality" in communities with data centers.
In Lowell, Massachusetts, where a Markley Group data center sits in the working-class Sacred Heart neighborhood, residents told the AP that they were staying inside to avoid smelling the diesel fumes being belched up near their homes.
Public backlash led the Lowell City Council to vote unanimously for a moratorium on data center building in February. But many residents feel the damage has already been done, with the Markley center gobbling up their town's electric and water resources.
One resident told The Harvard Crimson in May that since the center came to town, his winter electric bill has shot up from $40 to $177.
As temperatures spiked this week, more than 200 protesters flooded a local zoning meeting to voice their anger about the noise, pollution, and surveillance equipment bearing down on their homes. One 14-year-old girl was dragged out of the meeting by police officers.
"I'm not hurting anyone," she shouted as cops escorted her through the exit. "We just don't want data centers!"
Within roughly three years, data centers have come to consume about 4.5% of all electricity in the US, a number that is expected to keep ballooning in the coming years.
Even before the data center boom began, scientists had long warned that the climate crisis caused by human carbon emissions would make US heatwaves more frequent, longer, and more intense.
Heatwaves in major US cities are already three times as common as they were in the 1960s, according to an EPA report from 2024, and the average heatwave season is now 46 days longer.
The number of heat-related deaths in the US more than doubled from 1,069 in 1999 to 2,325 in 2023, according to a JAMA Network study analyzing mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With more than 1,500 data center projects currently underway across the US, a vicious cycle appears poised to accelerate.
The rapid buildout of data centers has already culminated in massive emission spikes. Amazon, which once pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2040, saw its carbon output increase by 16% in 2025 in large part due to its multi-billion dollar data center buildout.
According to a report out Wednesday from the Environmental Integrity Project, at least 74 natural gas-fired power plants are being planned to power the industry's expansion, which are expected to release 662 million tons of greenhouse gas—equivalent to the entire nation of Australia—per year.
Many of the plants are being built in low-income areas that already have poorer health outcomes and could produce nearly 160,000 tons of health-damaging pollutants that can cause lung damage, asthma, and heart attacks.
“In their wholehearted embrace of dirty and outdated gas power, data center developers are announcing to the public that they don’t care about us," said Alex Bomstein, the executive director at Clean Air Council. "We deserve better than decades of toxic pollution, parched streambeds, and climate chaos.”
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US Olympic Athlete Indicted for Touching Trump's Infamously Botched Reflecting Pool Renovation
"These charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American. This indictment reflects the administration's efforts to shift blame from their own failures," said attorney Norm Eisen.
Jul 02, 2026
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Thursday announced that her office had secured a felony indictment against former US Olympic athlete David Hearn for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In a press conference announcing the charges, Pirro accused the 67-year-old Hearn of "forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner" of the Reflecting Pool last month.
“We will not allow our sacred monuments to be roped off or diminished or in any way impacted by disgruntled individuals who think that they and not the rest of the nation have the right to decide what should happen,” Pirro said. “These landmarks and monuments belong to all of us, and they must be protected for generations to come."
"He reached down into the pool and violently removed the liner" -- Judge Jeanine's press conference about charges she's bringing against a reflecting pool "vandal" was like a deleted scene from Idiocracy. Just when you think things can't get dumber, they find a way.
Here's a… pic.twitter.com/zMaXnJ2RVy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 2, 2026
If convicted, Hearn faces up to 10 years in prison.
The Olympian was first arrested last month after he was seen reaching into the pool, which had been undergoing renovations ordered by President Donald Trump.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Hearn said that he simply put his hand in the water and touched a piece of lining in the pool that was already peeling off.
“I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn told the paper. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
Norm Eisen, an attorney who is representing Hearn, accused the Trump administration of using his client as a scapegoat for the botched pool renovation, which has been plagued by intense algae blooms, peeled lining, and dead ducks.
"These charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American," said Eisen. "This indictment reflects the administration's efforts to shift blame from their own failures."
"On the eve of our nation's Independence Day," Eisen continued, "Americans should be deeply concerned by the misuse of government power against an ordinary system based on a concocted narrative."
During her tenure as US attorney, Pirro has overseen multiple failed prosecutions.
Earlier this year, Pirro's office attempted to bring charges against several Democratic elected officials for creating a video reminding US military personnel that they should not follow any illegal orders given by the president. The case collapsed when a grand jury refused to sign off on an indictment, however.
Pirro's office last year also tried to convict Sean Dunn, a former US Department of Justice employee who hurled a sandwich at Customs and Border Protection officers, on misdemeanor assault charges. Dunn was ultimately acquitted by a jury in November.
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'July 4th BBQ Burn’: Reports Pin Blame for Sky-High Cookout Prices on Trump Policies
"Thanks to Trump’s tariffs and foreign wars, Americans won’t find any independence from inflation this Fourth of July.”
Jul 02, 2026
Having a July 4 barbecue will be significantly more expensive this year than it was a year ago, and two reports say President Donald Trump's policies are at least partly to blame.
In an analysis published Wednesday, the American Economic Liberties Project faulted Trump for not taking on the corporate concentration in the meatpacking industry, which the group argued was the single biggest contributor to a "July 4th BBQ burn" that will see Americans pay record prices for ground beef.
The report finds that even though Trump has tried to cut prices by lowering his tariffs to increase the supply of imported beef, they have not fallen due to the meatpacking oligopoly's power to keep prices high regardless of input costs.
In fact, the report says that prices have gone up by an additional 2% since Trump exempted beef imports from his tariffs last November.
The real problem, the report contends, is that just four companies process 85% of US beef, giving them enormous leverage over what consumers pay for the final product.
Even though three of these four firms have paid out tens of millions of dollars to settle price-fixing allegations, the report adds, none of them have been broken up.
Lori Wallach, director of the American Economic Liberties Project's Rethink Trade program, said the president's unwillingness to take on corporate power was hurting both consumers and cattle ranchers.
"Responding to a corporate-monopoly-driven price crisis with trade tools has caused a double whammy," said Wallach. "No relief for American consumers, and record floods of imported beef threatening the livelihoods of the ranchers who supported Trump."
"To bring prices down," Wallach added, "the administration must break up the big four beef packers that dictate terms to consumers and ranchers alike."
Katie Hettinga, policy analyst at Rethink Trade and lead author of the report, said that until Trump "breaks the power of dominant meat packers and grocery chains to keep prices high, American consumers will suffer."
A separate analysis published Tuesday by Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation spotlighted the high price of not just beef, but other July 4 staples as well.
In addition to the price of beef, which has gone up by over 20% in the last year, the report finds the prices of prepared potato salad (23% year-over-year increase), ice pops (22% increase), and strawberries (20% increase) have all seen substantial rises.
And it's not just food items, as the prices of disposable forks (20% year-over-year increase) and aluminum foil (18% increase) have gone up dramatically as well.
Lindsay Owens, executive director at Groundwork Collaborative, said that Trump's tariffs on foreign goods and his illegal war with Iran, which caused the price of fertilizer to spike, both contributed to the price spikes.
"As Americans fire up the grill this Fourth of July, they’ll feel the heat of summer price hikes," said Owens. "As popsicle prices spike and air conditioning bills skyrocket, working families will be forced to sweat in the face of high price tags. Thanks to Trump’s tariffs and foreign wars, Americans won’t find any independence from inflation this Fourth of July.”
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