By DAVID BLACKMON | DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION
President-elect Donald Trump has a big job ahead of him in restoring common sense and sanity to federal energy policy when he takes office on January 20. The last four years in this realm can more accurately be characterized as a series of ill-considered, irrational scams than as any sort of coherent, productive set of policies. It has been four years of bad policies — largely based on crass crony capitalism principles — that has done severe damage to America’s level of energy security.
There is no doubt that cleaning up this mess left behind by President Joe Biden and his appointees will take the full four years of Trump’s second term. But the new president will be able to take some fast actions to jump-start the process as part of his first 100 days agenda.
With respect, here is a list of 10 quick common-sense actions Trump can take to begin to restore America’s energy security:
1 — Rescind Biden’s ridiculous permitting “pause” on LNG export infrastructure. Of all the Biden energy policy scams, this was perhaps the most heinous and unjustified of all. Terminate it immediately and get this American growth industry back on track.
2 — Terminate U.S. participation in the Paris Climate Agreement and in any future annual COP conferences sponsored by the United Nations. Halt the spending of federal dollars related to any and all goals and commitments related to either of these wasteful processes.
3 — Terminate the office of Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy, aka “the Climate Envoy,” currently occupied by John Podesta and eliminate its budget.
4 — Turnabout being fair play, Trump should invoke a “pause” of his own related to permits and subsidies going to Biden’s pet offshore wind boondoggle. The pause would be justified by the need to conduct a truly thorough study on the potential impacts of those massive developments on marine mammals, seabirds, and the commercial fishing industry. Invoke the “precautionary principle” that has been ignored by Biden regulators related to these costly and possibly deadly projects.
5 — Order the Interior Department to immediately and aggressively restart the moribund oil-and-gas leasing program on federal lands and waters. Direct the Interior Department Inspector General to investigate the Biden-era manipulations of these programs for potential criminal violations.
6 — Form an interagency task force to recommend ways the executive branch of government can act to streamline permitting processes for energy projects that do not require congressional action. Congress has proven several times now that it is incapable of passing legislation in this arena.
7 — Place an immediate hold on all green energy subsidies pending a full compliance review. This should include any and all subsidy programs that were part of the IRA or the 2021 Infrastructure law. This review should also include suggested reforms to qualification requirements for these subsidy programs in light of the high percentage of bankruptcy filings by unsustainable companies that have benefited from these subsidies.
8 — In light of the Supreme Court’s recent recission of the Chevron Deference, order the Environmental Protection Agency to review the rationale for regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide, aka “plant food,” as a pollutant under the provisions of the Clean Air Act.
9 — Order an interagency review of the U.S. power grid and transmission infrastructure as they relate to national security concerns. Include a special focus on the current, growing trend of major tech firms locking up power generation assets for their own specific needs (AI, data centers, etc.) which might deny generation capacity that would otherwise be dedicated to the public grid.
10 — In light of recent reports of Biden regulators steering billions of dollars of IRA and other green energy funds to NGOs to provide funding for anti-fossil fuel propaganda, lawfare, and other abuses of the legal system, order an immediate freeze on all such spending pending a formal review.
In reality, this list could consist of hundreds of high priority items for the new administration to undertake. Such is the level of damage that has been wrought on American energy security by the outgoing administration.
But executing these ten items in the early days of his second term would represent a good start and place the country on a path to recovery. We wish Trump and his appointees the best of luck in restoring U.S. energy security.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
He could give back millions of acres of states land the feds think they needed and stole from states.
Let the states decide what to do with their land.
The federal government needs to end ALL SUBSIDIES. It needs to stop playing market maker with money it has no right to tax in the first place. You are supposed to be investing, not them. The only way that is going to happen is if they take less of your money. If a business needs TAX CREDITS and SUBSIDIES to stay in business, then it’s not profitable to begin with, and as such, it should die. Capitalism is the killer of insolvent businesses, which frees up capital into the economy for functioning, profitable businesses. We are so far off the path. I, for one, like and endorse this list as a good start.
I’m assuming you also mean the millions in subsidies to the oil companies as well?
Personally I’d be perfectly fine with stopping any subsidies paid to oil companies. However, since we know that oil companies subsidize government and government uses that money to then incentivize oil companies to do certain things (like produce more oil, to pay more taxes) and are then paid back the money they already paid in taxes it would end up being a net loss for government. Whereas the subsidies paid to solar and wind companies has done nothing to bring down prices, promote reliability, or generate environmentally sustainable power generation sources…in short these subsidies have been nothing but wasted.
Without placing a moratorium on carbon credits, this all means nothing. That is the pirate’s gold rush feeding money to foreign companies including the Chinese. They, and the Marxist control they entail, must be stopped.
This and also Mark’s comment, plus the good list in the article are all good places to begin.
Cheap energy is a surfire way to lift people out of poverty and create opportunities for growth for all- especially young people. With a current replacement rate of 1.6 we need a national conversation about marriage and family formation and how we can support this. Cheap energy is one way.
Amen to that ! Our current Alaska Administration is in bed with our Universities and Carbon Capture advocates. Why don’t they put those huge vacuums trying to suck up carbon emissions and store it in leaking wells by the volcanoes too.
Free government Money, money money is the driver of this insanity. Warmer climates are great for vegetation including growing crops.
Heck even some greenhouses have machines that increase carbon to enhance plant growth.
Nuts !
#11 Fast track the permitting of, and slash the regulatory burden, of a bunch of new domestic refineries.
Our refineries are operating at maximum capacity.
Build a bunch of new refineries and get gas down to $1 a gallon or less, and diesel too.
With the cost of transportation and of transporting goods brought down, prices can plummet.
During Creepy Joe’s term the cost to fill up my Suburban went up to $220, which is insane.
It should be around $40-$50
What about local energy issues? Chugach Electric quietly filed for an 8% increase in rates with the RCA. They are in a desperate financial situation while we continue to exaggerate the benefits of buying ML&P.
Where is the outrage?
We’re already energy independent and have been since around 2009.
Written by a dedicated capitalist who wishes to make as much money as possible, damn the world. Under Biden the USA has pumped more oil out of the ground than ever before. If you want to make the USA Energy Independent any oil pumped from the grounds of the USA can only be refined and sold in the USA. What the oil companies want is to pump oil in a safe secure environment, the USA, and then sell it on the world market for top $$$$$.
#5, #6, and #7 on this list should be of the utmost concern for all Alaskans. It currently takes far too long to take an environmentally sound and safe project through the permitting process and to production. The “green” energy companies that are pushing expensive, environmentally destructive, and unreliable sources of power generation like solar and wind should be stopped. Until solar and wind can can be proven to be cost neutral with other power generation sources, be as “green” and environmentally friendly as claimed, and be as reliable as other power generation sources they shouldn’t be mandated let alone funded by government.