Big oil gathers in Texas – but beneath the bravado, Trump-induced anxiety

By Dharna Noor

This week, the world’s most influential fossil-fuels conference, which has been dubbed the “Coachella of oil”, featured an industry displaying outward glee but barely managing to conceal its anxiety.

As recently as last year, sustainability was a major focus at the annual Houston convention, known as CeraWeek, with fossil-fuel companies touting climate plans. But in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election, the industry is undergoing a vibe shift, forgoing talk of the energy transition and instead parroting the president’s focus on energy “dominance”.

The mood at this year’s CeraWeek was at times not only celebratory but also swaggering. The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, kicked off the conference on Monday by saying the Trump administration was “unabashedly pursuing a policy of more American energy production”. Days later, as the White House announced an unprecedented series of environmental rollbacks, the interior secretary, Doug Burgum, invoked Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” mantra and claimed White House officials would cut 20 to 30% of US regulations.