At a press briefing hosted by Unlocking America’s Future (UAF) on December 18th, advocates and experts blasted President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees for conflicts of interest with Big Oil billionaires and their agenda of maximizing profits at the expense of everyday Americans. Featuring Accountable.US President Caroline Ciccone and Public Citizen Senior Climate Policy Counsel Tracey Lewis and moderated by UAF Spokesperson Kyle Herrig, the panelists shared concerns about: Chris Wright, an oil executive up for Energy Secretary who once drank franking fluid; Scott Bessent, a hedge fund titan up for Treasury Secretary; and Paul Atkins, a Federalist Society member up for Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“The Senate has some really important choices ahead of them … our energy, future, and environment are really on the line,” said Caroline Ciccone of Accountable.US.
On Treasury Secretary Nominee Scott Bessent, Ciccone noted that, as “an outspoken opponent and antagonist of climate science” that has made millions investing in oil and gas, Bessent “has been a vocal opponent of renewable energy development and the Inflation Reduction Act, which we all know has poured billions in clean energy manufacturing investment into rural economies.”
After Ciccone rounded out the list of conflicts of interest these nominees have, UAF Spokesperson Kyle Herrig noted: “These folks are likely to do the bidding of Big Oil and special interests and not the everyday Americans they’re supposed to be working for … The Senate has a real choice in front of it.”
“This is about gutting protections for people and investors by putting profits over people,” said Tracey Lewis of Public Citizen. “One of the very clear goals here is to unleash a predatory economy that will have only a handful of winners and many millions of losers.”
Lewis went on to say: “The one thread we can pull out of this in all the nominees just mentioned is they’re all billionaires. They’re the one percent of the one percent. How are they going to help people? What plans do they have to address climate risk and the inflation that it drives? The plan is to strip it all.”
In response to a question about how DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) will fit into the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back ESG initiatives, Lewis responded “it literally doesn’t exist. DOGE is a fever dream of these monied interests, these multi-billionaires who so interestingly have adopted the name of Elon’s crypto (business). It is a psychological operation to make us think that what they’re offering is of any value, of any protection.”
“First and foremost, there are financial disclosure and conflict of interest protocols in place in the federal government for a reason,” said Ciccone. “We really have to lean on those protocols at this time, especially when we’re dealing with very many wealthy people who have the ability to influence policy for their own financial gain. I think that’s a real concern with DOGE.”
You can watch the full briefing HERE.
