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Dear John,
It’s illegal for Big Oil corporations to conspire to raise the price of oil. But when Pioneer Natural Resources, the largest oil company in Texas, tried to merge with ExxonMobil, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) discovered that Pioneer had been colluding illegally with certain Arab nations in OPEC to keep oil prices high.
Federal law forbids U.S. oil producers from price fixing or taking actions that restrict competition. But private messages were found from Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield to Middle East oil ministers, discussing ways to reduce production to keep costs as high as possible. This collusion is already costing American households as much as $3,000 a year.
Now it has been reported that in April, convicted felon Donald Trump met with some twenty representatives of the gas and oil companies at Mar-a-Lago to promise them that if they contribute a collective $1 billion to his campaign (some of which he will siphon off for legal fees), he will grant them the executive order wish list they have already prepared for him.
Lobbyists and executives from ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute were reportedly among those present. The oil companies want Trump to reverse Biden’s pause on natural gas exports and to expand offshore drilling. At the dinner, Trump also said he would cut Biden’s tax credits for electric vehicles and reduce government investments in developing wind power (which Trump has falsely claimed causes cancer).
It’s time for the American people to fight back. Tell the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate and prosecute any illegal collusion by American oil companies to keep prices high now, and support Senate inquiries into convicted felon Trump’s reported billion dollar quid pro quo with the oil industry.
When oil prices are kept artificially high, due to illegal plans jointly developed by Pioneer’s Sheffield and OPEC, the costs are felt not just at the pump, but in the prices of all consumer goods that need to be transported.
In response to the illegal collusion, the Federal Trade Commission denied the Pioneer-Exxon merger, prohibited Sheffield from working for Exxon, and prohibited Exxon from hiring any Pioneer executives for five years. The FTC also referred the case to the DOJ for potential criminal prosecution.
Meanwhile, Trump’s billion-dollar request may be “shocking,” according to campaign finance expert Meredith McGhee, but it is probably not illegal. She says there’s little chance the Supreme Court would consider it a violation of existing bribery laws unless Trump wrote on a napkin exactly how much money he wanted deposited where, in exchange for what specific actions on his part.
Nevertheless, the notion that a candidate can request a collective $1 billion from industry leaders to carry out actions that will worsen the already severe global climate crisis is disturbing to say the least.
Contact the DOJ and urge them to take up the OPEC collusion case, and support the Senate’s investigation into convicted felon Trump’s fundraising meeting with oil executives now!
Thank you for keeping up the pressure to investigate and prosecute Big Oil!
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
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