Today, E&E News reported on DC insider Michael Whatley’s ties to Big Oil and his “long lobbying history” for proposals that would hurt North Carolina, including offshore drilling, and how those could “haunt” his campaign for U.S. Senate.
Read more below on Whatley’s long career of fighting for Big Oil – not North Carolina.
E&E News: Republican’s oil ties a focus in North Carolina Senate race
Timothy Cama | September 12, 2025
- Michael Whatley’s career as an oil lobbyist could haunt him in his bid to be North Carolina’s next U.S. senator.
- Whatley, the recently departed chair of the Republican National Committee, spent more than a decade lobbying for oil and natural gas companies and their allies.
- Whatley has lobbied for offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, including off the coast of North Carolina, a prospect that’s been met with bipartisan opposition.
- Whatley’s campaign didn’t respond to requests for comment and questions about whether he still supports his previous positions on oil and gas.
- [Whatley] vocally supported Trump’s 2018 proposal to open nearly all of the areas off the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf and Alaska coasts to drilling — including near North Carolina.
- A High Point University poll in 2018 found that 53 percent of North Carolinians opposed offshore drilling near the state’s coast, and 37 percent supported it. Municipal leaders all along the coast opposed it as well.
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