The Trump campaign has seen dismal fundraising yields in the energy sector, seemingly due to nervousness about his policy and his volatile temperament

Shale oil billionaire Harold Hamm publicly lavished praise on Donald Trump during the Republican convention last month. Natural gas mogul T Boone Pickens is talking with pro Trump Super Pacs about providing help, including possibly writing a big check and hosting a fundraiser. And coal chieftain Robert Murray spearheaded a big fundraiser for Trump in late June in West Virginia.

But while Trump has garnered the endorsements of several leading fossil fuel chieftains and has often espoused pro-oil and coal rhetoric, his campaign and allied Super Pacs have seen dismal fundraising yields in the energy sector, seemingly due to nervousness about Trump’s thin policy statements and volatile temperament, as well as difficult times many big companies are going through, say veteran GOP energy operatives and analysts.

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Trump’s fundraising from energy bigwigs has not only been lackluster but pales besides what Mitt Romney pulled in four years ago, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Trump’s campaign and allied Super Pacs received $195,166 through 30 June from coal, oil, gas and electric utilities. In the same period in 2012, Romney’s campaign and allied Super Pac roped in $8,606,958 from these fossil fuel donors, according to CRP.

Veteran industry lobbyists and analysts say many oil and gas leaders view Trump as unpredictable and hard to pin down.

Rick Shelby, a lobbyist and senior adviser to the American Gas Association, said he thought that the majority of people in the industry were going to vote for Trump, but cautioned that “until he comes out with a comprehensive detailed plan there will be a tepid response”, from big industry donors. “If we’ve learned anything about Mr Trump it’s that he’s incredibly flexible on all matters.”

Others agree.

“An awful of people are staying on the sidelines because they have no idea what to expect of Trump,” said Don Duncan, a former top lobbyist for the ConocoPhillips energy corporation. Until his latest message meltdown post convention, Trump was seen by many voters who back fossil fuels as “the lesser of two evils”, adds Duncan, noting that Hillary Clinton has championed alternative fuels like solar and wind and, unlike Trump, has stressed repeatedly that climate change is a real threat.

Trump’s shifting and unpredictable views are underscored by his stance on global warming. The candidate famously called climate change a “hoax created by and for the Chinese”; but a statement his company submitted for a permit to build a seawall to protect his Scotland golf course cited the threat of climate change as a justification.

Energy analysts also cite several economic and political factors to explain Trump’s mediocre fundraising in the energy sector. Many oil and gas companies are facing big financial headaches, with the price of oil hovering at only around $40 a barrel while consumers are enjoying the low cost of gasoline, while the coal industry’s financial condition is dire.

As in other sectors, Trump’s “contradictory comments on whether he needs outside checks” have put off donors, one veteran oil operative said, and have “clearly not been helpful”.

Hamm, the CEO of Continental Resources, has only given $5,000 to the Trump campaign, while at this point in 2012 he’d donated just under $1m to a Super Pac supporting Mitt Romney.

Hamm did, however, introduce Trump to an elite group of oil and gas executives by inviting him to an event in late May in North Dakota, where the Republican candidate’s message of less regulation, overturning the climate change accord championed by the Obama administration and support for the Keystone XL pipeline seemed to win him some early support.

During last month’s GOP convention, Hamm publicly touted Trump’s energy credentials, and the candidate reciprocated by declaring that the oil mogul is the “king of energy ... He knows more about it than anybody I know”. Hamm is said to be a potential Energy Secretary if Trump wins, and has recently been named to an elite council of Trump economic advisers.

Pickens was going to host a bash at his Texas ranch pre convention for the pro-Trump Great America Pac, which boasts GOP strategist Ed Rollins, but it was postponed and hasn’t been rescheduled.

“We continue to be in contact with the various Super Pacs,” said Jay Rosser, a spokesman for Pickens, who heads natural gas giant BP Capital. “At this point, we’re monitoring the landscape and still haven’t taken any action.”

Joe Craft, the CEO of coal giant Alliance Resource Partners, has had talks with some of the pro-Trump Super Pacs about writing a check, while focusing on raising funds in tandem with his wife for Trump Victory, the joint fundraising operation of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.

But a number of high profile fossil fuel CEOs such as Rex Tillerson of ExxonMobil have been MIA as Trump donors. And the powerful advocacy network of some 700 wealthy conservatives, led by multi-billionaires Charles and David Koch – who control the $115bn a year energy and industrial behemoth Koch Industries – has opted not to back Trump with ads.

The network, which historically has included such Trump allies as Hamm and Craft plus many donors who find him anathema, is abstaining from the presidential race and focusing on keeping the Senate and House in GOP hands largely because of serious concerns about Trump’s incendiary rhetoric and policy stances. Charles Koch has deplored Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration saying it would “destroy our free society”, and the donor network generally dislikes Trump’s anti-free trade views.

Conservative analysts aren’t surprised at the large number of fossil fuel executives who are not ponying up.

“Major donors in the oil and gas industry look at Trump like the rest of America looks at him,” said Jerry Taylor, the president of Niskanen Center, a libertarian thinktank which among other issues backs a carbon tax to reduce climate change risks, “with a lot of trepidation, worry and concern about his temperament, depth of knowledge and the direction he would take the country.”