The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has dominated headlines recently. DOGE is on a quest to slash costs and boost efficiency. While targeting the federal government, its actions will undoubtedly influence the private sector, including O&G.
For one, there’s deregulation. As I’ve previously written, President Trump has indicated that he wants to increase domestic oil production and said on Joe Rogan’s podcast that environmental regulations “are the biggest tool for stopping growth.”
Musk has also indicated support for O&G. In August 2024, during a Trump interview on X, Musk said, “My views on climate change and oil and gas are pretty moderate. I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy.”
As for over-regulation, Musk has made it clear he’s not a proponent of it. Musk posted on X, “Regulations, basically should be default gone. If it turns out that we missed the mark on a regulation, we can always add it back in.”
Beyond policy, leadership at the top also influences corporate behavior and workplace culture. New administrations set new national moods, and we’re already seeing the DOGE effect ripple through the corporate world. Correlation does not imply causation, of course. In some cases, what happens in the public sector eventually echoes in the private sector.
One area where this influence is visible is workplace arrangements. Even before Trump began his second term and signed an executive order calling for federal workers to return to the office, some companies like Amazon and JPMorgan Chase had already announced they wanted employees back in the office full time. But with the federal return-to-office mandate in place, companies are arguably more emboldened than ever to follow suit. Will we see a similar trend in the industrial sector? Possibly. Given the nature of many roles, the industrial sector isn’t a field that entirely lends itself to remote work. In this climate — one focused on streamlining and efficiency — some O&G executives could be inclined to rethink their current remote work policies and bring those employees back to the office.
Trump and Musk are also pushing to cut costs in the federal government. We’re seeing cost-cutting measures in the private sector as well. Reuters reports that some companies “have announced job cuts so far in 2025,” including Starbucks, Amazon and Southwest Airlines. The outlet reported that some O&G companies are letting go of staff, too — Chevron, Halliburton, LyondellBasell and Dow.
Every business has unique challenges that cause leaders to decide to lay off team members. The federal government cutting jobs is not the cause of similar job cuts in the private sector. But in my view, it certainly sends a signal to the private sector.
O&G executives should keep in mind that efforts to become more efficient — whether by changing internal safety and environmental guidelines, calling employees back to the office full time or cutting staff — may yield positive results, but nothing is guaranteed. They might just get the opposite of what they hoped for. As I’ve written before, given that the political climate can drastically shift with the outcome of the 2028 election, leaders shouldn’t get too comfortable with the status quo.
