“An America First energy agenda … focuses on creating a transparent and fair regulatory environment that creates a level playing field for all energy sources to compete, eliminating harmful regulations and barriers to growth across industries, allowing for investment in crucial infrastructure and jobs, reducing dependence on unstable foreign energy sources, and protecting the environment.”
Previous posts at MasterResource have examined the energy positions of the Jill Stein/Green Party, Kamala Harris, GOP Platform, American Petroleum Institute, and Heritage Foundation/Agenda 25. This post reproduces the energy positions of America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a think tank in the Trump fold.
Pillar VII of AFPI’s “Make American Energy Independent” begins:
Our American energy sector achieved something else as well: in attaining new heights of innovation and development, the U.S. now provides the world with opportunity and security through its energy and energy technology exports. A policy environment that fosters American industry and innovation is the critical foundation to powering a cleaner, more prosperous future for the U.S. and the world.
Unfortunately, Americans producers and innovators face mounting policy barriers that make it harder for them to provide the resources needed. We must act to safeguard a legacy of prosperity and security for future generations, not a legacy of stagnation, uncertainty, and crippling energy inflation.
An America First approach that elevates energy independence to the center of American policy is essential to achieving these goals. An America First energy agenda is grounded in sound principles of free-market economics and transparent governance. This approach focuses on creating a transparent and fair regulatory environment that creates a level playing field for all energy sources to compete, eliminating harmful regulations and barriers to growth across industries, allowing for investment in crucial infrastructure and jobs, reducing dependence on unstable foreign energy sources, and protecting the environment.
America First policies will reduce our reliance on foreign fuel and strengthen our position on the world stage, lower consumer energy and fuel costs, advance environmental protection, and promote and power a growing and prosperous economy for all Americans.
After stressing the importance of domestic energy in a political world, the energy agenda continues:
Unfortunately, this new era of energy independence is under threat from the anti-energy agenda and regulatory overreach of our government today. The current administration’s decision to halt federal leasing and deprive industry access to critical resources on federal lands undermines market certainty, leading to underdeveloped resources. This decision and others demonstrate its failure to recognize that the U.S. has the resources to safeguard energy independence.
America First policies emphasize securing energy independence across a broad range of energy sources.
Such an approach recognizes the importance of diversification and having redundancies in America’s
energy ecosystem, especially in light of the unpredictability of future economic and geopolitical conditions.
While fossil fuels will remain a core part of America’s energy backbone, our Nation’s ability to secure 21st century energy independence through world- leading technological innovation depends on several factors. These include having the industrial capacity to mine, extract, refine, and transport natural resources such as fossil fuels, critical minerals, rare earth elements, and uranium.
In contrast to the Left’s vision of putting all of America’s energy eggs into one government-centric green” energy basket—exposing our Nation to dangerous levels of foreign dependence—the America First approach relies on removing undue regulatory constraints. These constraints hamstring the private sector’s ability to take the lead in making critical investments that ensure America’s energy independence regardless of which technologies end up prevailing in the energy marketplace. To facilitate such a robust marketplace, policymakers should also enhance access to federal lands for responsible resource development.
Just a few years ago, America defied the doubters by becoming energy independent for the first time in more than half a century. With sound policy, America can once again achieve this milestone and take energy security into its own hands, ensuring that it will never again be dependent on untrustworthy foreign governments for its energy needs.
Comment
The primacy of energy, as well as the dominant position of the U.S. in consumer-chosen, taxpayer-neutral energy, is evident in the above statements. The key is “sound principles of free-market economics and … transparent and fair regulatory environment that creates a level playing field,” which comports with AFPI’s “guiding principles” of “liberty, free enterprise, national greatness, American military superiority, foreign-policy engagement in the American interest, and the primacy of American workers, families, and communities in all we do.”
Yes, oil, gas, and coal should not be penalized as under the current regime. But neither should fossil fuels or any form of energy be subsidized by special tax treatment or government grants. The same goes for wind, solar, biomass, and civilian nuclear. Electricity, too, should be a a free-market sector unlike today.
Finally (but not least!), tariffs on imported goods, a Trump campaign promise, should be energy-neutral as a “second best” policy within a policy. Trump tariffs should not play into “border adjustment” policy (or PROVE IT Act policy) as part of a domestic CO2 (“carbon”) tax program. Better yet, it should not be implemented as a protectionist (vs. revenue) program for reasons explained by economic Donald Boudreaux.
The economic objection to tariffs – the economic case for free trade – is rooted exclusively in the recognition that artificially raising the prices of imported goods and services does not, contrary to protectionist myth, improve the living standards of people in the home country. Tariffs meant for revenue purposes are a categorically different animal. Revenue tariffs, quite unlike protective tariffs, achieve their goal only insofar as they do not obstruct imports.