‘America’s Energy Dominance and Manufacturing Revival’ (Trump Remarks, August 13, 2019)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 19, 2019

“[The Paris Accord] would have taken away our wealth…. We had to pay money to other countries that are very substantial countries. They wanted to take away your wealth. They didn’t want you to drill. They didn’t want you to frack.  They didn’t want you to do steel.”

But what we want now is not independence; we want American energy dominance. Dominance

– President Donald Trump, August 13, 2019

At the construction site of Royal Dutch Shell’s Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in western Pennsylvania last week, President Trump delivered an industrial speech that clearly distinguished his energy exceptionalism, energy dominance, energy optimism theme versus the climate-doom, keep-it-in-the-ground, Green-New-Deal worldview. The backdrop is Beaver County, Pennsylvania where a badly needed, long-awaited manufacturing revival is in process.

Shell Project

Shell’s multi-billion-dollar project will turn low-cost ethane from the Marcellus and Utica basins into polyethylene, a building block for many plastics. “The plant’s Pennsylvania location will provide Shell with a competitive advantage over Gulf Coast operators while providing customers with a shorter, more dependable supply chain,” the company states.

The “supply chain” is described by Shell as “Boosting the ingredients for modern life.” In the company’s words:

“From the phone in your pocket to the pillow you sleep on, the essentials of everyday life depend on the raw chemicals that go to make them. As global population and incomes rise, one giant chemicals plant has found ways to step up production to meet growing demand for these items.”

Trump Speech

Highlights from Trump’s speech follow (subtitles added):

• I’m truly honored to be here with the amazing energy workers and construction workers. These are talented people. The craft workers who make America run and who make America proud.  We’re proud again….

• Today, we celebrate the revolution in American energy that’s helping make our economy the envy of the world. This Shell petrochemical plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania … [is] one of the single-biggest construction projects in the nation. And it made it possible and was possible by clean, affordable, all-American natural gas. Powerful, clean, natural gas.

Wind Power Problems

• And when the wind stops blowing, it doesn’t make any difference, does it? Unlike those big windmills that destroy everybody’s property values, kill all the birds. Someday, the environmentalists are going to tell us what’s going on with that.
• And then, all of a sudden, it stops; the wind and the televisions go off. And your wives and husbands say, “Darling, I want to watch Donald Trump on television tonight.” “But the wind stopped blowing and I can’t watch. There’s no electricity in the house, darling.” No, we love natural gas and we love a lot of other things, too….

New Manufacturing Era

• With your help, we’re not only unleashing American energy, we’re restoring the glory of American manufacturing, and we are reclaiming our noble heritage as a nation of builders again. A nation of builders.
• When completed, this facility will transform abundant natural gas — and we have a lot of it — fracked from Pennsylvania wells, which they never would have allowed you to take if I weren’t President. If my opponent won … I guess you would have stopped long ago….
• But I was talking to Gretchen [Watkins of Shell North America]. They would have never gotten the approvals to do what’s needed to fuel these plants.  That wouldn’t have been good. So, probably, they wouldn’t have started. But if they would have started, it would have stopped.
• But they put it into plastic through a process known as “cracking.”  That raw material will then be shipped all over the country and all over the world to be fashioned into more products stamped with that very beautiful phrase: “Made in the USA.” …  Beautiful.

Shell Project

• Getting this massive job done right has required more than 1,500 pieces of heavy equipment; one of the largest cranes anywhere in the world — I look forward to seeing it…
• And you have thousands of tons of concrete, aluminum and steel, and nearly 6,000 of the strongest, toughest, and most talented workers anywhere on Earth…. It was the Trump administration that made it possible.  No one else.  Without us, you would never have been able to do this.”
• I also want to thank I also want to thank Bechtel, a real incredible company.  We talk about the great builders of the world: President Jack Futcher….
• You’ve heard a lot of horror stories where nothing can get done, nothing gets passed. It takes years and years and years to get a simple permit.  It can take 20, 21 years to get a road, before they reject it.  How about this?  They go 20 years — 21 years, in certain cases — for a highway or a road…. And we have a man that knows how to break it up but he’s also a great lover of the environment: EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler….
• And we’re grateful especially to the Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell.  That’s big stuff, folks. You know, I’m a business guy. When I hear “Royal Dutch Shell” …. Chad Holliday….  thank you for coming….
• Shell’s U.S. President — you just met her and you know her; everybody knows her, and she’s got a lot of other things in store. And she’s thanked me for what we’ve done here. But I said, “Forget this. We got a lot of jobs. Let’s do a couple of more fast.  Do them fast. We’ll get you fast approvals.”
• And you may get rejected, you know, if it’s not going to be environmentally good, environmentally sound; if something is going to be wrong. But we’re not going to take 20 years to reject you, like they did with the pipelines. It didn’t matter; I approved them. But that’s okay.

Pipeline Approvals

• So we have pipelines — we got plenty of pipeline folks here, don’t we?  …. Keystone XL.  They did it with the pipelines. Dakota Access Pipeline.  We’re building pipelines. And if we get the pipelines approved, then you better work.
• The EPA is working right now to get them approved in Texas.  And if we can do — we can increase our — we can increase. We’re now the largest in the world in energy, by far. But if we get those approved, Andrew — I hope Andrew is listening — EPA.  Andrew, you know what I’m saying, right?  If we get them approved in Texas fast — they said it will take 18 years. I said, “Could you do it in about a month?” Right?
• If we get, though — oh, look at those pipeline guys. They’re so happy.  That’s a lot of jobs. But, Andrew, if we get them approved fast, we can increase our entire output. Texas is so big. And it’s bigger — it turned out to be much bigger.
• I also got you ANWR, in Alaska, which may be bigger than everything.  And they couldn’t get it. Ronald Reagan couldn’t get it. No President could get it. And I got it approved, and we’re all set. And so — so we’re all set.
• So, Andrew, in Texas, if you can get those pipelines going, you will be so happy. We’ll have dinner with your family. I’ll tell them how great you were.  (Laughter.) Okay? EPA….
• For generations, American greatness was forged, and fueled, and won by the extraordinary workers of this region. This region is an incredible region.

Democrat Party Fail

• Pennsylvania miners.  Do we love our miners?  (Applause.)  They lit up our towns and powered our industries. And Pennsylvania factory workers made the American brand into the universal symbol of excellence all around the world — all over.
• The last administration tried to shut down Pennsylvania coal and Pennsylvania fracking.  If they got in, your fracking is gone, your coal is gone, you guys — I don’t know what the hell you’re going to do.  You don’t want to make widgets, right?  You don’t want to make — do you want to learn how to make a computer?  A little tiny piece of stuff you put in with those big, beautiful hands of yours…. No, you want to make steel and you want to dig coal, and that’s what you want to do.
• I was in West Virginia when Hillary made that terrible statement that she wants to close up all of the coal. She forgot: In three weeks, she was going to West Virginia.  Remember, she wanted to close up all coal.  She was in an area where they didn’t do the coal.  And she said, “Well, I look forward to closing up all coal.  It’s going to be closed.  Steel — going to be in big trouble.”  She forgot: In three weeks, she was going to West Virginia.  That didn’t work out too well….
• But on my first day in office, I ended the war on American energy.  And that’s common sense, I think.  You know, that’s common sense.

America’s Endowment

• We’re lucky.  You go to places like China, they don’t have oil and gas.  They don’t have it under their — they have to go buy it and then they devalue their currency and manipulate their currency…. 
• But we have … the greatest resources, which really came about over the last few years.  Nobody knew this.  Fracking made it possible.  Other new technologies made it possible. And now we’re the number-one — think of it, as I said — the number-one energy producer in the world.
• I’m so proud of that because we wouldn’t have been number five.  They were going to close it up. They were going to close it up. And it’s common sense. They wanted to take away our wealth.

Paris Accord Fail

• That’s what the Paris Accord would have done. It would have taken away our wealth. It wasn’t for us; it was good for others. It wasn’t for us. We had to pay money to other countries that are very substantial countries. They wanted to take away your wealth. They didn’t want you to drill. They didn’t want you to frack. They didn’t want you to do steel. They wanted to take away your wealth.
• Now, the press will try and spin that differently, but I’m right, okay?  The fake news. That’s a lot of people back there for a — like an 11 o’clock speech….

Appalachia, Marcellus, and Utica

• And here in the Appalachian region, where the Marcellus and Utica shale formations generate one-third of American natural gas — think of that.  You’ve been sitting on this for a long time, and yet, look at the numbers. 
• Look at the way you lived. Because you never had anybody that wanted to take advantage of it, but now we’re taking advantage of it.  You’re sitting on gold, and we’re taking advantage of it. And your future has never looked brighter or better. It’s so great that you stayed, because you suffered. This whole region — Appalachia… it just suffered….
• When this plant opens, 600 American workers will get the full-time jobs, with quality healthcare, pensions, and great pay to support a family.  And you have — I said before — almost 2,000 construction workers.  And you’re going to another plant because we’re going to talk to Bechtel after this, and we’re talking to Shell.
• I mean, you got the boss from Shell.  You people don’t realize, that’s a big deal. I don’t know where the hell he comes from. Where are you based? It’s not in this country. Hey, how about moving Shell to the United States? Well, we’re ready if you are. Just let me know. But they have their big USA division. But that’s a great company. It’s a big deal…. You have the top man — top man at Shell.

More Mega-Projects Ahead

• But this is just the beginning. My administration is clearing the way for other massive, multi-billion-dollar investments. We just did one in Louisiana. It’s a 10-billion-dollar plant. There’s more pipes in that plant that I’ve ever seen in my life. There’s more plant — you know that. LNG. It’s an LNG plant. Ten billion dollars. And we’re now — it’s totally sold out. They sell it like you rent office space. Can you believe it?  It’s all sold out.

• All over the world, people have used [LNG]. And you haven’t had a plant like that built in this country, really, ever, because there’s never been anything that big. But you didn’t build plants like that because, environmentally, they weren’t letting you. And yet, environmentally, it’s so good what they’ve done and what they can build today.

• Investments that could bring more than 100,000 new jobs to this region are now being looked at very seriously….  I feel the hundred thousand jobs, Andrew, is going to be a very low number. I think you’re going to have many more. This is an incredible region. You’re sitting on top of something special. It’s all fueled by the greatest treasure on the planet: American energy. And we don’t want people taking that away from us.

• Two more companies have recently proposed a 10-billion-dollar investment in the great state of Ohio. Incredible state. We have tens of billions of dollars’ worth of investments, and this is really good stuff that we’re now negotiating. But these two are in Ohio. 

• The energy revolution is also creating new jobs in West Virginia, [New] Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, all across our beautiful land….

Green New Deal Fail

• Despite all of this exceptional progress, however, some politicians in this country still want to keep America’s vast energy treasures buried deep underground and let other nations take advantage of our country.  Not happening anymore.
• They see factories like this one not as a cause for celebration, but for condemnation. Democrats in Congress are pushing hard for the Green New Deal. How about that one? Green New Deal.
• Where it puts everybody in this room out of work — hate to tell you — and a lot more people.  Everybody out of work.  And other — but I don’t want to speak badly about it. You know, you’ve heard me say this: I want to encourage them. That should be their platform. I don’t want to do it too early….
• And other radical plans to wipe out our coal. That’s what they want.  They want to wipe out our oil. They want to wipe out our natural gas industries, while allowing other countries to steal our jobs.
• Virtually every leading Democrat has vowed to eliminate fossil fuels, obliterating millions of American jobs, devastating communities, and bankrupting factories, families, and senior citizens all across this region.
• And, by the way, this is only fuel that has the power for plants.  When you have to steam up and you have to fuel up on these giant plants, these giant generators, these giant electrical factories, you need what you’re doing. You need this. It’s got the power. The other doesn’t have the power; certainly not yet. Probably never will.
• And we’re not taking chances. And we have the cleanest air and water we’ve ever had in our country right now. The cleanest we’ve ever had.  And we’re going to keep it that way. 
• But we’re never going to allow other countries and outside sources to take away our great wealth, because that’s what they want to do. They want to take away our wealth, take away our jobs. We’re not going to let it happen.

Pennsylvania vs. New York

• To see the destructive results of the far-left’s energy nightmare, just compare the enormous success here in Pennsylvania with the tremendous folly happening right across a line — a little line — in New York. Both states have vast energy reserves, but New York prohibits development while Pennsylvania welcomes it.
• From 2010 to 2017, natural gas production plummeted by nearly 70 percent in New York, but it soared almost 1,000 percent in Pennsylvania. And New York won’t allow us to build a pipeline across because New York is sort of a long state and we can’t have pipelines going across, helping a region that’s not a wealthy region at all. They have a lot of economic problems. People are leaving, left and right.
• We want to get it over to the waters. We want to get it over to the oceans.  We want to get it up to New England, where they have the highest energy costs anywhere in the United States. We can’t get energy because New York doesn’t allow the pipelines to go through.  And that’s going to be very costly for New York, ultimately.
• As a result, families in Pennsylvania shale country got more jobs, billions of dollars in royalty payments, and wages that are significantly higher compared to their neighbors just across the state line.
• Meanwhile, families in New York — I love New York; that’s where I’m from.  Probably, most of you don’t know that. That’s where I’m from.  They’re burdened with more power outages and electricity rates — you never saw anything like this — that are much, much higher than neighboring states and than your state.  New York energy rates are through the roof. New England, through the roof. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we can’t get pipelines through New York. New York won’t let us. They won’t let us….
• The radical Left wants to do to America what they’ve done to New York: raise prices, kill jobs, and leave our nation less independent and far less secure.
• My vision is the exact opposite. And we want to work with New York and we want to help New York. They need jobs in New York so badly.
• You know, they talk about the environment. So you have the state line, and over here you have machinery fracking. And over here you have nothing, except poverty. Over here you have people driving new cars and nice cars.  And over here you have cars that are 40 years old.  Now, what does that have to do with the environment?  It’s the same.  It’s an artificial line.
• And I wonder what happens when they get down there. What happens? I just wonder, is New York losing its wealth? You know what I’m talking about, right?  What happens when those lines go down and they can go in any direction now?  The equipment is so incredible.
• So, hopefully, we can help New York.  I want to help New York so much. We will never allow ourselves to be at the mercy of foreign energy suppliers. And that’s what’s fighting us. They don’t want us to have great energy. They’ve made a fortune selling us energy.

Energy Independence

• You probably saw the Straits the other day. Very few American boats are there. They capture — Iran, I broke up that deal. That was a good thing to do. It’s a whole different country right now.
• But they’re capturing boats from other countries. They’re not taking our boats. And one of the things that was brought up by the media, actually — and wisely and correctly brought out — we have very few boats going there anymore because we have our own oil and gas. We don’t need it from the Middle East anymore.
• And that’s why we’re pursuing a future not only of energy independence — but not just words. You know, you’ve been hearing “energy independence” for years and years, and you’d hear it. We have real independence. But what we want now is not independence; we want American energy dominance. Dominance
• Instead of relying on foreign countries, we are now relying on American producers.  And we are relying on American workers to build our own future right here on American soil.  It’s time.
• And together, we’re defending the oil and gas workers who light up our cities and uplift our communities.  We’re fighting for the technicians and construction workers here in Beaver County who are building a powerful engine of American commerce.  There’s no place like what you’re seeing right outside these doors.  There is no place like it.

Manufacturing Revival

• We’re here once again to stand up for the engineers and the factory workers who will shape the work of your hands into American-made products sold all over the world.  That’s what’s going to happen.  That’s what you’re producing.
• And everyday patriots who make this all possible, you are the backbone of America.  The absolute backbone.  And you haven’t been given the honor of having that said by other people.  But you are the backbone of this country.  (Applause.)  It’s true.  So true.
• You are the ones who work hard, pay your taxes, build your neighborhoods, obey our laws, safeguard our values, raise up your children, make this land the greatest nation ever to exist on the face of the Earth.  You are the ones who do it.  We work with a lot of people, but you are there and you are doing it.  You’ve always been loyal to America, and now you finally have a President of the United States who is loyal to you.  (Applause.)
• Our vision is pro-worker, pro-jobs, pro-family, pro-growth, pro-energy, and 100 percent pro-American.