Energy secretary says Trump is 'just getting started'
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright discuss the Trump administration's plans for American energy on 'The Will Cain Show.'
With the recent launch of the National Energy Dominance Council to increase energy production and speed infrastructure permitting, the president has an opportunity to turn destructive Biden-era policies into tools of his America First agenda.
What the Democrats created for their purposes, President Donald Trump can use for his.
And that is especially true with President Joe Biden’s clean energy agenda. From EV subsidies and mandates to rejoining the Paris climate agreement and investments in green energy infrastructure, the last administration spent countless hours and cost Americans well over a trillion dollars in an attempt to drive down carbon emissions.
President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden (Getty Images)
Naturally, Biden’s subsidy and regulatory approach didn’t work. The Democrats fell short of their carbon reduction targets and U.S. debt skyrocketed.
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Yet while the Biden administration failed to accomplish its climate change goals, Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council can repurpose Democratic-built tools to advance an America First energy agenda.
A prime target for reform would be Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). This bloated bill was replete with waste, unnecessary earmarks and classic Washington grift. But there are also some beneficial policies as well. The IRA provides hundreds of billions of dollars to infrastructure, job creation and technological innovation in the clean energy sector.
"Clean energy sector" may have a left-coded ring to it, but on the ground, these jobs are precisely what we need to revitalize the workforce among the forgotten men and women of America who vaulted Trump to office. In large part because blue jurisdictions are so overburdened by taxes and regulations, 80% of the Biden administration’s clean energy manufacturing investments actually went to Republican districts.
In fact, it’s not a blue state like California that is at the forefront of the U.S. clean energy sector – it’s deep-red Texas.
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The National Energy Dominance Council should lean into these investments and let red states follow Texas’ lead. The clean energy market is already well over $1.2 trillion and growing at over 5% a year.
The market for clean energy technology alone is expected to balloon to over $2 trillion by the mid-2030s. If current trends hold, China will eat up the lion’s share of this market. We can’t let that happen.
Ironically, China has relied on its high-polluting economy to become the leading producer of solar panels and other clean tech. We must maintain national investments in this sector to keep clean energy development, manufacturing and production jobs in America rather than China. At the end of the day, we want American citizens and the world to buy our solar panels, batteries, nuclear technology and more.
When that happens, red America will not only benefit with lower energy costs and more manufacturing jobs – it will also give more Americans the freedom to produce and store their own power instead of having a local utility company control their energy destiny.
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However, simply repurposing Biden-era policies in wise ways is not enough. Trump will win where Biden failed because his energy strategy realizes the U.S. can’t attain energy dominance without dominating every energy technology.
Instead of going all-in on clean energy tech alone, Trump also wholeheartedly embraces America’s legacy of fossil fuel production. To be energy dominant, America must keep oil and gas production high to drive down prices, retain good-paying American jobs, and displace higher-emitting fuels abroad.
By leaning into American oil and gas, Trump will also help the environment – just like he did during his first administration, when historic American LNG production helped cut U.S. carbon emissions to the lowest level in a quarter of a century.
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Not every Biden-era green policy is ripe for redemption. Far from it: EV mandates, for example, are not only costly and inefficient but an affront to American freedom. And Biden’s regulatory attack on the oil and gas industry drove up prices while undermining what remains our greatest strategic energy advantage.
But we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. The National Energy Dominance Council should utilize Biden-era energy investments, redirect programs where possible and eliminate what can’t be used. When that happens, President Trump will have the ultimate victory – achieving total and complete energy dominance as fast, and efficiently, as possible.
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