Candidate Trump Promised Oil Executives a Windfall. Now, They’re Getting It

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By Lisa Friedman, The New York Times. 

Excerpt: During the presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump gathered oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago estate and promised them a powerful return on their investment if they raised $1 billion to help him retake the White House. The industry never ponied up quite that much, but nevertheless, six months into Mr. Trump’s presidency, oil and gas companies are poised to reap multibillion-dollar windfalls from the administration’s actions so far. A sweeping domestic policy bill that Mr. Trump signed into law this month includes about $18 billion in new and expanded tax incentives for the oil and gas industry.... It also includes billions of dollars in tax breaks that aren’t specific to oil and gas but were top oil industry priorities as the law was being negotiated. It reduces the amount of money that energy companies must pay the federal government for the oil and gas they extract on public lands and waters, a change valued at about $6 billion, according to one analysis. The bill also delays penalties for oil companies that fail to reduce emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that leaks from wells, representing about $1.5 billion in benefits for the industry.... 

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