Trump Administration Accomplishments (Part I: ‘American Energy Independence’)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 19, 2021

Last week, MasterResource summarized the energy- and climate-related highlights of the Trump presidency. The Trump Administration itself just released its highlight list, which is presented today for energy and tomorrow for regulation in general.

Some listed accomplishments below, however, are woke:

• Renewable energy production and consumption both reached record highs in 2019.
• Enacted policies that helped double the amount of electricity generated by solar and helped increase the amount of wind generation by 32 percent from 2016 through 2019.

Perfection can be the enemy of the good, and energy was no exception for Trump. In tomorrow’s list, for example, is this step back:

• Placed a moratorium on offshore drilling off the coasts of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.
• Authorized ethanol producers to sell E15 year-round and allowed higher-ethanol gasoline to be distributed from existing pumps at filling stations.

Swing-state politics was at work. It’s a tough world.

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The Administration’s facts and figures follow:

• For the first time in nearly 70 years, the United States has become a net energy exporter.
• The United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world.
• Natural gas production reached a record-high of 34.9 quads in 2019, following record high production in 2018 and in 2017.
• The United States has been a net natural gas exporter for three consecutive years and has an export capacity of nearly 10 billion cubic feet per day.
• Withdrew from the unfair, one-sided Paris Climate Agreement.
• Canceled the previous administration’s Clean Power Plan, and replaced it with the new Affordable Clean Energy rule.
• Approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.
• Opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska to oil and gas leasing.
• Repealed the last administration’s Federal Coal Leasing Moratorium, which prohibited coal leasing on Federal lands.
• Reformed permitting rules to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and speed approval for mines.
• Fixed the New Source Review permitting program, which punished companies for upgrading or repairing coal power plants.
• Fixed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) steam electric and coal ash rules.
• The average American family saved $2,500 a year in lower electric bills and lower prices at the gas pump.
• Signed legislation repealing the harmful Stream Protection Rule.
• Reduced the time to approve drilling permits on public lands by half, increasing permit applications to drill on public lands by 300 percent.
• Expedited approval of the NuStar’s New Burgos pipeline to export American gasoline to Mexico.
• Streamlined Liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal permitting and allowed long-term LNG export authorizations to be extended through 2050.
• The United States is now among the top three LNG exporters in the world.
• Increased LNG exports five-fold since January 2017, reaching an all-time high in January 2020.
• LNG exports are expected to reduce the American trade deficit by over $10 billion.
• Granted more than 20 new long-term approvals for LNG exports to non-free trade agreement countries.
• The development of natural gas and LNG infrastructure in the United States is providing tens of thousands of jobs, and has led to the investment of tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure.
• There are now 6 LNG export facilities operating in the United States, with 2 additional export projects under construction.
• The amount of nuclear energy production in 2019 was the highest on record, through a combination of increased capacity from power plant upgrades and shorter refueling and maintenance cycles.
• Prevented Russian energy coercion across Europe through various lines of effort, including the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation, civil nuclear deals with Romania and Poland, and opposition to Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
• Issued the Presidential Permit for the A2A railroad between Canada and Alaska, providing energy resources to emerging markets.

Increased access to our country’s abundant natural resources in order to achieve energy independence.

• Renewable energy production and consumption both reached record highs in 2019.
• Enacted policies that helped double the amount of electricity generated by solar and helped increase the amount of wind generation by 32 percent from 2016 through 2019.
• Accelerated construction of energy infrastructure to ensure American energy producers can deliver their products to the market.
• Cut red tape holding back the construction of new energy infrastructure.
• Authorized ethanol producers to sell E15 year-round and allowed higher-ethanol gasoline to be distributed from existing pumps at filling stations.
• Ensured greater transparency and certainty in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.
• Negotiated leasing capacity in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Australia, providing American taxpayers a return on this infrastructure investment.
• Signed an executive order directing Federal agencies to work together to diminish the capability of foreign adversaries to target our critical electric infrastructure.
• Reformed Section 401 of the Clean Water Act regulation to allow for the curation of interstate infrastructure.
• Resolved the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil crisis during COVID-19 by getting OPEC, Russia, and others to cut nearly 10 million barrels of production a day, stabilizing world oil prices.
• Directed the Department of Energy to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to mitigate market volatility caused by COVID-19.