The U.S. oil lobby aims to bulldoze European climate regulations as a top policy goal in 2026.
In a policy agenda published this month by the American Petroleum Institute (API), the country’s largest oil and gas trade association said it will ensure that laws outside of the country “do not disadvantage U.S. producers.” The API explicitly names two European climate laws it will zero in on: the EU Methane Regulation and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), a law designed to force large corporations to cut emissions to deal with the negative environmental and human rights impacts of their businesses.
API’s policy directive around European climate laws comes amid precarious trade negotiations and tensions between the U.S. and the EU. President Donald Trump’s chaotic quest for worldwide “energy dominance” and allegiance to fossil fuels has worked out in the favor of American oil companies before, which doesn’t bode well for the future of EU climate regulations.
Behind the scenes, the U.S. fossil fuel industry has already spent nearly a year coordinating a campaign of attack on the CSDDD, a trove of leaked documents obtained by the research group the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), and reviewed by DeSmog and ExxonKnews, shows. Their strategy, in part, was to “amplify” concerns about U.S. trade threats and international tensions to unravel key provisions in the law.
The effort was orchestrated by the Competitiveness Roundtable, a coalition of primarily U.S. fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Koch Inc., with close ties to the Trump administration, DeSmog first reported last month. The PR company Teneo, which represents major U.S. oil companies, organized the Roundtable.
Top U.S. oil lobby API targets landmark EU climate law, policy document showshttps://www.exxonknews.org/p/top-us-oil-lobby-api-targets-landmark