US ELECTIONS: Trump VP pick aligns with presidential candidate's pro-fossil fuel energy plans

Donald Trump's selection of Republican US Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate in the upcoming presidential election aligns with the former president's goals to reverse many of the Biden administration's energy and climate policies, observers said.

Oil and natural gas industry officials in the legislator's home state expect Vance to support polices that are favorable for the industry.

"You're going to hear him talk about energy and how important energy is for the economy and our way of life," Mike Chadsey, director of external affairs for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said in an interview. "When they get elected, and he gets into the White House, he's going to be an outspoken advocate for the industry. He will make sure that our issues are at the forefront."

While Vance told an Ohio State University audience in 2020 that "of course, we have a climate problem in our society," he framed the issue differently the following year.

"I'm skeptical of the idea that climate change is caused purely by man," Vance said in 2021 during an American Leadership Forum event convening Ohio candidates for US Senate at the time. "It's been changing ... for millennia."

Industry observers expect him to hew closely to Trump's energy and climate policies.

"It's clear that there is no daylight between Senator Vance and Donald Trump on climate and energy issues," Jeff Holmstead, a partner with energy law firm Bracewell, said in an email. "Anyone hoping for a vice presidential candidate who would moderate Trump's views on these issues is surely disappointed."

Vance's track record

Newly elected, Vance in 2023 co-sponsored the Power Act, which would require the US president to seek approval from Congress before delaying oil, gas or mining permits and leases on federal lands. The bill was referred to a Senate committee but saw no further action.

The Ohio Republican also introduced the Drive American Act, designed to eliminate more than $100 billion in electric vehicle subsidies passed in US President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act and replace such subsidies with a $7,500 consumer tax credit for new gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles.

"Right now, the official policy of the Biden administration is to spend billions of dollars on subsidies for electric vehicles made overseas," Vance said in a September 2023 press release when introducing the Drive American Act. "If we're subsidizing anything, it ought to be Ohio workers — not the green energy daydreams that are offshoring their jobs to China. We can secure a bright future for American autoworkers by passing this legislation and reversing the misguided policies of the Biden administration."

This bill also saw no further action after being referred to a Senate committee.

Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, Yale Law School graduate and author of the book Hillbilly Elegy, received $352,037 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry between 2019 and 2024, according to Open Secrets. Trump received $861,596 from the industry in 2023-2024 alone.

US fossil fuels

Trump has consistently promised that under his future administration the US will "drill, baby, drill." He told oil and gas industry executives in a May meeting he would pursue regulatory rollbacks in exchange for $1 billion in campaign contributions.

The Republican Party platform approved by convention delegates July 15 includes one paragraph on energy policy, promising to "Unleash American Energy" by "lifting restrictions on American Energy Production."

Vance's views on the oil and gas industry are similarly supportive. In an August 2023 op-ed in Ohio's Marietta Times, he said, "We Ohioans are lucky to live on top of the Utica Shale oil and gas basin," which he said represents "America's next energy boom."

In 2023, the US produced 12.9 million b/d of crude, the most in the world for the sixth straight year. Vance's home state of Ohio ranked seventh among US states in dry gas production, coming in at roughly 2.2 Tcf/d in 2022, just after New Mexico, according to US Energy Information Administration data.

Fred Hutchison, president of CEO of LNG Allies, a trade group representing US exporters of liquefied natural gas, suggested that Vance understands the subtleties of issues facing the industry as a native of an energy-producing state.

Such issues would include the industry's efforts to voluntarily seek to rein in methane emissions alongside government regulations, Hutchison said in an interview. Vance would bring a "sensible" approach from a producing perspective to the ticket, he said.

Climate policy advocates, however, have expressed concern about the nomination.

"J.D. Vance not only flip-flopped on supporting Trump, he flip-flopped on climate," Stevie O'Hanlon with the Sunrise Movement said in a statement. The Sunrise Movement is a political action organization that advocates action on climate change. "He went from expressing concern about climate change before running for the Senate to voting to gut EPA protections and denying that there even is a climate change crisis."

China and ESG

A second Trump administration could also bring some risk for the industry, depending on trade policies with China.

Vance has supported Trump's positions in favor of a 10% tariff on imports as well as tougher trade measures against China, emphasizing protection of domestic workers. In 2021, he joined in an op-ed with the Trump administration's US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, backing more tariffs on China.

The oil and gas sector faced cost increases in developing infrastructure stemming from steel and other tariffs under Trump. Amid the trade war with China, the US LNG sector also faced counter-tariffs and LNG flows to the nation stopped for 13 months.

Trump's running mate has also denounced environmental, social and governance, or ESG, policies used in the financial industry to assess investment risks and opportunities.

"ESG is basically a massive racket to enrich Wall Street and enrich the financial sector of the country, at the expense of the industries that actually employ a lot of Ohio's workers for middle-class jobs," Vance told Breitbart News when running for senator in 2022.