Press Releases

MEMO: Trump’s Day One Actions & Pro-Polluter Agenda Will Raise Costs and Hurt Families

Jan 17, 2025

TO: Interested Parties

FR: Sara Chieffo, VP, Government Affairs, League of Conservation Voters

RE: Trump’s Day One Actions & Pro-Polluter Agenda Will Raise Costs and Hurt Families


As we prepare for the inauguration of Trump and the intentionally overwhelming onslaught of executive orders to follow, we know that energy and climate is one area among a long list that he intends to roll back progress for the benefit of himself, his billionaire allies, and big polluter cronies.

The horrific wildfires in Los Angeles that have claimed more than two dozen lives and left thousands of families devastated with their homes destroyed, and more than 100,000 impacted by evacuations is a catastrophic example of the fossil-fueled disasters that are upon us. Now more than ever, we need to hold Big Oil and other Big Polluters accountable and build climate resilience, not line their pockets or block clean energy efforts.

Trump’s Day One Actions & Pro-Polluter Agenda Will Raise Costs and Hurt Families

Put simply, Trump’s approach to energy adds up to increased prices for families and increased profits for oil and gas executives while fanning the flames of climate fueled disasters. He campaigned on expanding oil and gas drilling and other items on Big Polluters’ wish list, but what he left out of his campaign speeches was the true costs that families would have to bear. We expect his Day One actions to quickly pivot away from the voters he made promises to during the campaign and instead reveal who he really cares about— not hard working families looking for lower costs and safer, healthier communities–but the billionaire oil and gas executives he surrounds himself with, and who are the only ones who stand to get richer at consumers’ and the environment’s expense.

If Trump were serious about lowering energy costs for families, bolstering energy security, having “the cleanest air and water,” and boosting the economy, he would be doubling down on abundant and quickly deployed clean energy like wind and solar instead of trying to ban it. Focusing exclusively on oil and gas while weakening environmental protections and blocking clean energy is not what the people want — regardless of their political affiliation. Let’s cut through the rhetoric because the consequences of Trump’s only-oil agenda will be costly to families and communities:

Energy costs for families will go up, not down:

  • Eliminating just the tax credits that support large scale wind, solar, and geothermal power projects will raise home electric bills by an average of 10% a year – and over $250 per year in four states. 
  • Recent studies have shown that increasing exports of methane gas to other countries will cause prices to go up in the U.S. The study from the Department of Energy itself “finds that unfettered exports of LNG would increase wholesale domestic natural gas prices by over 30%.”
  • We cannot drill our way to lower prices at the pump–oil prices are set at the world market and frequently respond to increases in U.S. production with price hikes. 
  • Repealing the clean energy incentives like rebates and tax credits for home efficiency updates and new appliances and zero emission vehicles will drive up costs for families trying to make their homes more comfortable and their commutes more affordable.  
  • The expected rise in demand for electricity from data centers and reshoring manufacturing will require adding more power, yet Trump is working to ban the cleaner, cheaper and faster options like wind and solar to instead force reliance on more polluting and more expensive sources like methane gas and even oxymoronic “clean coal.”

Jobs will be lost: Canceling the clean energy manufacturing boom that we’ve experienced over the last two years would end hundreds of thousands of family-sustaining jobs in communities around the country which will not be replaced by a reliance on oil and gas. 

Air and water will get dirtier and extreme weather will continue to devastate communities: 

  • The pollution that comes with weakening environmental protections to speed up and increase more use of dirty sources of energy like oil, methane and coal will have steep health care costs and even loss of life. 
  • Failing to address the climate crisis and actively making it worse with more carbon pollution from oil, gas and coal will accelerate the most extreme impacts of climate change already being felt–especially in communities of color and low-income areas that are already experiencing discriminatory environmental, housing, infrastructure, and economic policies.
  • Expected rollbacks to air monitoring and a return to the silencing of environmental science will mean people won’t even know what they are being exposed to. 

The U.S. will be less competitive: Trump’s plans to essentially ban clean energy and clean vehicles in the U.S. will cede these growing industries to countries like China, putting our country at an economic and energy security disadvantage and allowing China to dominate the world’s energy future.