Authored by H. Sterling Burnett via RealClearEnergy,
President-elect Donald Trump is well situated to hit the ground running upon taking the oath of office. His experience attempting to drain the swamp in his first term should arm him for greater success in his second term.
One area where Trump made significant headway in his first term was in making America energy independent. Indeed, Trump’s policies began a domestic energy renaissance, making the U.S. energy dominant, becoming a net exporting country for the first time in 75 years.
President Joe Biden quickly undid all this success. Playing Don Quixote in an inane, quixotic effort to control climate change, Biden reduced domestic energy production, blocked energy exports, and increased U.S. dependence on China for its energy infrastructure.
There are a number of actions Trump can enact on his own to put America back on the path to energy dominance and economic and geopolitical sovereignty. First, he could, for the second time, withdraw the U.S. from the costly, ineffective, Paris climate agreement. Once Paris is disposed of Trump can rescind all the executive orders Biden issued to comply with Paris’ demand for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as Biden’s climate and environmental justice programs. Shuttering Biden’s White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council and Advisor Council and all the programs that flowed from it, for example, would save billions of dollars in unspent funds. Trump could then attempt to claw back funds already allocated, but currently unspent under these and other Biden climate initiatives.
Trump recognizes that he cannot do everything necessary to advance U.S. energy dominance on his own, which is why he got the jump on selecting his Cabinet heads, to work in lockstep to advance his goals or furthering the freedoms and interests of Americans while improving U.S. energy security. With his choice of Lee Zeldin to run the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Department of Interior (DOI), and Chris Wright to run the Department of Energy (DOE), Trump understands picking the right Cabinet is critical to Making America Great Again.
The EPA can best advance U.S. energy dominance by rescinding the unjustified carbon dioxide endangerment finding imposed by the agency under then-President Barack Obama. The finding was based solely on faulty projections of flawed computer models used by of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – real world data show we face no climate crisis. When the endangerment finding is rescinded, the EPA could then withdraw the entire edifice of regulations built upon it, including but not limited to, the Clean Power Plan provisions forcing the closure of coal power plants while expanding the use of costly, unreliable wind and solar power. EPA should also then withdraw the vehicle emission standards mandated under Biden that will require the use of electric vehicles. Consumers with their choices, clearly show that they prefer gasoline and diesel vehicles. EPA should simultaneously withdraw California’s Clean Air Act waiver, so the state’s progressive politicians can’t dictate to the rest of the nation what cars and trucks they drive.
The DOI can quickly advance U.S. energy independence by promptly reviewing the huge backlog of pending oil and gas development leases on public lands. The department should also develop a rule imposing a 90-day deadline for decisions to improve or reject oil and gas development plans for sold leases going forward.
The DOI should also offer new energy development leases on public lands quarterly, as the law demands. Biden ignored this law despite a court ruling saying he must offer the leases. The DOI should follow Trump’s stated preference and halt further offshore wind development, unless and until such leases are shown by comprehensive environmental impact statements to pose no threat to sea life, such as endangered, protected sea mammals like the North Atlantic right whale as well as tourism and commercial fishing.
The DOE’s main contribution to advancing U.S. energy dominance would be to shut down. The country got along just fine without a DOE for the first 200 years of its existence. The trillions of dollars spent by the department since its creation has not advanced U.S. energy interests; ending the DOE would be a great project for DOGE to take on.
The DOE mainly operates laboratories for energy development, but entrepreneurs responding to market demand do that best. These labs should be closed. Rather than entrenched government scientists and bureaucrats wasting trillions of dollars on pet projects, return the money to the Treasury, or the people. If it is thought government must fund energy innovation, do so through a series of prizes.
Congress should also eliminate the DOE’s efficiency setting power for household appliances. Until Congress acts, the DOE should halt any pending efficiency standard, have the agency withdraw any upgraded standards imposed by Biden to fight climate change, and reinstitute standards that existed under Trump. The federal government should have no role in dictating the types of appliances and features of appliances consumers choose for their homes and businesses.
This list of worthwhile energy actions is hardly comprehensive, but they are among those that can be started, and some completed, within the first year of Trump taking office.
Energy dominance is a worthwhile goal. It’s good for Americans’ pocketbooks, good for U.S. economic progress, and would advance U.S. geopolitical aims. Climate change does not pose an existential crisis, but an economically crippled, energy encumbered America makes the world less safe and American families poorer.
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., ([email protected]) is the Director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit research organization based in Arlington Heights, Illinois.