Trump vs. the Green New Deal

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 16, 2019

“The golden era of American energy is now underway.” (President Donald Trump, The White House, May 14, 2019)

… under the Green New Deal, they don’t like clean, beautiful natural gas. They don’t like anything. (President Donald Trump, “Remarks on Promoting Energy Infrastructure and Economic Growth,” Hackberry, LA, May 14, 2019)

Who has been the most free-market energy President in U.S. history? In modern times, Ronald Reagan comes to mind. He decontrolled crude oil and petroleum products in his first week of office (January 1981), although Jimmy Carter’s phase-out of such regulation had just six months to go. Reagan did some other things to undo a decade of energy statism but fell short of his election goal of abolishing the US Department of Energy. [1]

Enter Donald Trump. Pulling out of the Paris climate accord and changing the alarmist climate narrative represents one of the greatest, if not the greatest, free-market moments in American history. And with the Green New Deal being the centerpiece of the Democratic Party and Progressive Left, all eyes are on Trump to continue to champion, in word and in deed, the US hydrocarbon boom.

Trumpian energy policy is far from perfect. The trade war has negatively impacted the energy industry and its consumers, as I have written elsewhere (here, here, and here). And much work remains to be done to eliminate tax preferences for wind and solar power and to ax mandates for ethanol. Nevertheless, the progress and promise of Trump versus the Obama/Hillary energy policy has been stark.

The latest Trump free-market energy moment happened this week in remarks at a new LNG terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. The White House press release follows with fact after fact:

President Donald J. Trump Is Unleashing American Energy Dominance

USHERING IN THE NEW ERA OF AMERICAN ENERGY: President Donald J. Trump has put in place policies that tap into America’s incredible energy resources.

• President Trump has rolled back stifling policies put in place by the previous administration that were holding back our country from achieving energy dominance.
  • President Trump withdrew from the terrible Paris Climate Agreement.
  • President Trump ended the war on coal by getting rid of costly Obama-era regulations like the Stream Protection Rule and the Clean Power Plan.
• President Trump has taken action to open up our Nation’s abundant natural resources.
  • President Trump signed legislation to open up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for energy exploration.
  • The Department of the Interior held 28 onshore oil and gas lease sales last year, generating a record-shattering $1.1 billion in revenue.
• President Trump has paved the way for more energy infrastructure development, ensuring American energy can be delivered to the market.
  • The Trump Administration approved the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Keystone XL Pipeline, and the New Burgos Pipeline.
  • The President signed two Executive Orders to cut red tape that was holding back the construction of new energy infrastructure, like pipelines.
  • The Trump Administration has streamlined permitting for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals.

UNLEASHING ENERGY DOMINANCE: American energy production is soaring to new heights thanks to President Trump’s policies.

• President Trump’s energy agenda has helped drive the booming economy—with mining and oil and gas extraction contributing to growth in 49 States.
• Total energy production across various sources reached a record high in 2018.
• Crude oil production hit a record high last year, leaping past the previous record set in 1970.
  • Crude oil production spiked 17 percent in 2018, reaching 10.96 million barrels per day.
  • The United States has become the largest crude oil producer in the world.
• American natural gas production jumped to a new high in 2018, marking the second straight year of record production.

EXPANDING ENERGY EXPORTS: President Trump has worked to open up new export opportunities for American energy producers.  

• We are exporting more and more energy as production soars and President Trump negotiates better market access for our producers.
• Crude oil exports nearly doubled in 2018, reaching a record average of 2 million barrels a day.
• Coal exports reached their highest level in five years in 2018.
• Under President Trump, the United States has become a net natural gas exporter for the first time since 1957.
• Thanks to President Trump’s negotiations, the European Union (EU) agreed to import more LNG from the United States.
  • American exports of LNG to the EU have increased by 272 percent since this agreement and reached an all-time high in March 2019.

Reference

[1] Bradley, Robert. “Energy Policies: A Few Bright Spots.” In David Boaz, ed., Assessing the Reagan Years. (Cato Institute, 1988), pp. 305–19.