The oil and gas industry in the United States is experiencing a dramatic transformation, steered by a powerful alliance between influential executives and the Trump administration. As 2025 draws to a close, the sector finds itself at the center of a political storm, with deregulation, tax incentives, and policy rollbacks reshaping the energy landscape—often at the expense of environmental protections and clean energy ambitions. According to The New York Times, oil baron Harold Hamm of Continental Resources has emerged as a pivotal figure, leveraging more than $2 million in campaign contributions to secure outsized influence over federal energy policy. Hamm’s sway has helped place industry loyalists, such as Doug Burgum as Interior Secretary and Chris Wright as Energy Secretary, in top government positions.
Since the start of the year, President Donald Trump and Congress have aggressively moved to dismantle or weaken a host of climate and energy regulations. Fuel-efficiency standards, methane emissions rules, and tax credits for electric vehicles and renewables have all been targeted. The Princeton University-led REPEAT Project, analyzing these shifts for the Times, estimates that these rollbacks will result in an additional 7.6 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade. At a recent conservative think tank conference, Hamm declared, “We’ve just gotten started. It’s a changed world.”
But the story of America’s oil patch isn’t just about billionaires and Washington insiders. In places like Cut Bank, Montana, the impact is personal and immediate. Patrick Montalban, CEO of a local oil company, recently gathered his 20 employees to lay out a grim choice: lay off two workers or accept a 10 percent pay cut. The team chose the pay cut. With gasoline prices dipping below $3 a gallon and crude oil trading under $60 per barrel, Montalban’s company—like many others—is feeling the squeeze. Still, he’s quick to point out that life is better under Trump. “This administration is working with us,” Montalban told Politico. “The Biden administration wouldn’t even talk to us.”
For much of the industry, Trump’s policies are a lifeline. The president’s approach has been to slash regulations, revive fossil fuel projects, and expand drilling, all while Congress has granted billions in tax benefits to oil and gas through the signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Tax breaks for renewable energy, championed by Biden, have been whittled down, though incentives for capturing and storing carbon dioxide—a technology seen as vital for oil majors in a decarbonizing world—have survived.
“He’s done things that make good sense,” said Dewey Bartlett, head of a family-run oil company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reflecting a widespread sentiment in the sector. Even so, the industry is not without its challenges. Oil and gas stock indexes are lagging behind the broader market, employment has dipped, and some companies have been forced into layoffs. The era of easy-to-reach oil is fading, fueling talk of a production plateau or even a peak.
Adding to the complexity are Trump’s tariffs, which have made vital supplies like steel pipe significantly more expensive. The president has proposed import taxes as high as 300 percent before easing off, but steel generally faces a 50 percent import tax. For oil field service firms, these costs bite hard. “They are a path to mediocrity, not excellence,” said Ron Gusek, CEO of Liberty Energy, during an October earnings call. “They raise prices, cut profits, increase unemployment, diminish productivity and slow economic growth.” Trump’s sweeping tariffs sent oil company shares tumbling in April, but the market has since rebounded. “There has not been much handwringing that it’s holding firms back, driving up costs,” Severin Borenstein of the Energy Institute at UC Berkeley told Politico.
Despite these headwinds, the sector is thriving in other ways. The price of natural gas is on the rise, fueled by demand from new power-hungry data centers, a fleet of export terminals along the Gulf Coast, and a growing network of pipelines. Trump’s administration has pushed drilling even further than some in his own party would prefer, while hacking away at environmental restrictions. Oil and gas production reached new record highs during both the Biden and Trump presidencies, with the current administration still boasting more than three years left in its term as of December 2025.
Industry leaders acknowledge that the pendulum swings between Republican and Democratic administrations have been dizzying. Greg Upton, executive director of Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies, described “policy uncertainty” as one of the sector’s top concerns. “The sentiment is that these political swings are larger and they’re more dramatic,” Upton said. Energy, after all, is a long-term, capital-intensive business—frequent regulatory shifts can be deeply disruptive.
One of the most contentious issues has been the regulation of methane, a greenhouse gas roughly 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Under Biden, a “methane fee” was set to climb from $900 per metric ton in 2024 to $1,500 in 2026. Smaller producers argued this would put them out of business, especially since many manage older wells that yield little oil. Trump and Congress killed the rule earlier this year, and the president’s new law delayed the underlying statute for a decade. Meetings between industry representatives and EPA officials have continued throughout 2025, as companies seek clarity on future regulations. “They said, ‘Gee, I wish we would have known about you folks in 2022,’” Montalban recounted, referencing EPA staff. Environmental advocates, however, counter that methane emissions don’t drop as wells age, and that rules are necessary to prevent gratuitous environmental damage. “These are inexpensive rules,” said David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The White House maintains that its approach is delivering for both the industry and consumers. “President Trump is working with oil producers and leaders in the industry to ensure they have the resources necessary to Make America Energy Dominant Again,” said spokesperson Taylor Rogers. “Thanks to President Trump unleashing American energy, Americans across the country are already paying less at the gas pump, as the national average for gasoline just dropped to a five-year low.”
Yet, not everyone in the oil patch is celebrating. While Trump touts low fuel prices as a victory, many executives know that global market forces—particularly moves by OPEC+ to regain market share—are the real drivers. Trump has nonetheless set his sights on pushing prices even lower. “He wants to get it down to $2,” Montalban said. “God help us.”
As the U.S. energy sector barrels toward an uncertain future, the only constant seems to be change—political, economic, and environmental. With deregulation in full swing and industry leaders holding unprecedented sway in Washington, the coming years promise both opportunity and risk for America’s oil and gas producers, their workers, and the communities that depend on them.
