K Street Girds For Democrats’ Oil Oversight Onslaught

Democrats have spent their years out of power seething about the Trump administration’s close ties with the oil and gas sector, which has won regulatory rollbacks, new drilling opportunities and lower royalty rates after donating heavily to President Donald Trump’s campaign.

If the midterms go their way, Democrats may finally be able to do something about it.

K Street lobbyists are bracing for an onslaught of oversight investigations if Democrats capture one or both chambers of Congress in November. And the party winning back committee gavels — and the subpoena power that comes with them — will make the Trump administration’s dealings with the oil and gas industry a top target.

Democrats are honing their affordability message with the 2028 presidential election looming. Any links they can uncover, real or perceived, between the Trump administration’s policies and rising electricity and gas prices could be fodder for that message, according to lobbyists who are already beginning to prepare clients for their turn under the spotlight.

“K Street is absolutely in hunker-down mode,” said Jim Noe, a partner at Holland and Knight who works with major energy clients. “We expect very instantaneous, immediate and aggressive oversight.”

Any company that has engaged the Trump administration or appears to have benefited from its policies could be a target if Democrats gain control of committees, lobbyists said. Of particular interest to Democrats will be the Trump administration’s intervention in Venezuela, donations to Trump’s White House ballroom, equity stakes in critical minerals companies, Department of Energy grant reviews, deals to terminate offshore wind projects, and expedited environmental reviews and pollution exemptions, especially for data centers.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), ranking member of House Natural Resources Committee, said he would expect Democrats’ oversight to cover all of those issues “and more” if the party prevails this fall.

“It starts with all of the oversight and investigation work that has not happened in this Congress,” Huffman said. “And that’s a lot, because [Republicans have] done none, as far as I can tell, in terms of all of the disruption and chaos and corruption across the board.”

Lobbying firms across town have started meeting with their energy clients to discuss potential oversight vulnerabilities and how they should handle communications that could eventually be swept up in an investigation, the lobbyists said. Some have already started to hold “murder board” sessions, where a firm’s lawyers role play as Democratic committee members and pepper executives with the type of questions they expect to come up in potential hearings.

A divided government would almost certainly temper major legislative efforts, so K Street is expecting a potential Democratic majority to press its messaging through a particularly aggressive approach to oversight, said Michael Bell, a partner specializing in congressional investigations at the law firm Hogan Lovells Cadwalader.

“It does feel to me that Democrats are more organized and more deliberate in their preparation … for oversight and investigations than I’ve seen in previous Congresses,” he said. “I would say in many ways [they are] more prepared to really launch on Day One.”

And with an uncooperative administration still in power, Bell said the private sector was likely to bear the brunt of the oversight offensive. “The point would likely be to point the finger at the Trump administration … but they will use companies to try and get the information that they seek and desire,” Bell said.

To be sure, Republicans, too, are looking to paint their pro-fossil fuel energy policies as a boon for affordability, and some lobbyists noted there is a risk Democrats overreach with their oversight efforts.

“One thing I think Democrats need to be careful about is, if their investigation is rooted in an affordability message, it could complicate it if the things that they’re looking at would raise energy prices,” said Will Moschella, co-chair of the lobbying practice at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

The idea that the party that runs Congress in a period of divided government will focus on oversight isn’t new. Republicans launched investigations and held numerous hearings on the Biden administration’s clean energy funding and pause in new liquefied natural gas export permits after they took control of Congress in 2023.

One executive at a major oil company said its executives were already mentally preparing for a rerun of the types of hearings that Rep. Ro Khanna held when the California Democrat led the House Oversight Committee’s environmental subcommittee in 2022. The subcommittee sent letters to BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other large oil companies requesting information on their strategies to cut greenhouse gas emissions and transition to clean energy development.

“I have PTSD when I think of those letters,” said the executive, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly.

Asked Tuesday whether he plans to bring oil company CEOs back to the Hill, Khanna said, “I’ve had them before and I think it’d be good to have them again.”

It’s not just the lawmakers with the gavels that the companies have to consider. Alex Conant, a partner at the strategic communications firm Firehouse Strategies, said his firm is advising clients to prepare their public relations departments to smooth over any reputational hits that Democratic congressional hearings may land.

“There’s a huge reputation part of this,” Conant said. “When Democrats start sending letters and accusations, you don’t have to just worry about Congress, but also your other stakeholders as well. What are you saying to the media? What are you saying to employees? What are you saying to shareholders?”

John Northington Jr., a former Obama Interior Department appointee who is now a government affairs adviser at K&L Gates, said the most important message he is delivering to his clients is to prepare early.

“If they wake up the day after the election and the Democrats control the House, that’s the wrong time to be making your first phone call to one of these congressional offices,” Northington said.

Josh Siegel and Pavan Acharya contributed to this report.