As executives and lobbyists faced a shift in energy regulations, the oil and gas sector spent $38 million on lobbying the federal government in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease from the $44 million spent in the same time in 2024.
During the Biden administration, when the White House was pushing for alternative energy options despite record-high U.S. oil output, the oil and gas business spent more than $153 million on lobbying the federal government last year.
How is Trump boosting fossil fuel expansion efforts?
The oil and gas sector may be poised for another boom now that Republicans control the entire federal government. The exploration of sensitive areas and national energy investments has been boosted nationwide by President Donald Trump’s desire for domestic energy. The oil and gas sector has thus invested millions in lobbying to support pro-extraction laws, exploration of fossil fuels, and less regulation. Additionally, there are indications of a possible energy slowdown, which would lead to more lobbying.
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What projects is ConocoPhillips prioritising in Alaska?
With more than $3.2 million spent on influence efforts in the first three months of 2025, ConocoPhillips spent more on lobbying than any other firm in the sector. ConocoPhillips has concentrated its lobbying efforts on promoting liquefied natural gas exploration, much like many other oil and gas behemoths. Nuna and Willow were two projects that started producing oil on Alaska’s North Slope for ConocoPhillips, which had spent over $8.4 million on lobbying the year before.
20,000 barrels of oil per day are expected to be produced by the Nuna project, which reached oil at the end of last year. A program that was expected to release 180,000 barrels of oil per day, or 4% of the yearly carbon emissions in the United States, was halted by the ongoing push and pull over approval of the “Willow Project.” Additionally, in 2024, ConocoPhillips paid $22.5 billion to purchase Marathon Oil in an effort to strengthen its position in lower-48 oil production, particularly in the Permian Basin.
How are lobbying firms benefiting from energy policies?
After years of rejection from almost all federal agencies involved in the permitting process, the Trump administration swiftly advanced the application for the highly controversial Ambler Road project, a 212-mile mineral access project in Alaska’s North Slope. Plans to assist the Alaska Liquified Natural Gas Pipeline project and Ambler Road were announced by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. In 2024, Venture Global LNG, a low-cost producer of liquefied natural gas, spent $860,000 on lobbying, up from $20,000 in 2023. The Unlocking of Domestic LNG Potential Act of 2024 was the subject of lobbying by ConocoPhillips and several other oil and gas firms.
Koch Inc. spent more than $2.8 million during the quarter, the second-highest amount, on lobbying the federal government. However, in order to concentrate on less risky markets, the business declared in April that it was abandoning the global oil trade. Among several other measures, Koch Inc. spent more than $11 million in 2024 pushing for the Environmental Protection Agency’s emission limits and regulations.
Compared to $7 million the year before, the American Fuel and Petrochem Manufacturers spent over $28 million lobbying the federal government in 2024 on topics pertaining to the enforcement of EPA regulations and automobile pollution standards. AFPM spent $1.8 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2025, far less than the $7.8 million it spent in the same period in 2024.
With $880,000 in fees (about the same as the 2024 Q1 total of $870,000), the lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck handled the most oil and gas work in the first quarter of the year. The largest rise was for BGR Group, which saw its oil and gas lobbying profits soar from $300,000 in the first quarter of 2024 to $450,000 this year.
