Trump vs. Biden: There Is But One Choice on Energy Issues
- Home
- Industry News
- News
- Trump vs. Biden: There Is But One Choice on Energy Issues
- November 2, 2020
- News
American
Energy Alliance
….
….
[Editor’s Note: Donald Trump way surpasses Joe Biden on the energy issues as this comparison of their policies by AEA so vividly demonstrates.]
President Donald Trump’s mantra of energy dominance says it all. Trump views American energy resources as strategic and economic assets that will make us stronger at home and across the globe. His policies have matched his rhetoric and the market-driven American energy resurgence has blossomed during Trump’s first four years in the White House.
On issues across the energy spectrum, Trump has delivered on the promises of his renegade campaign of 2016. Bucking the Washington policy consensus, the president has instituted a common sense policy attitude that has let Americans produce, build, and thrive. Through the right-sizing of regulations, the canceling of the misbegotten executive actions of his predecessor, and by working with Congress, Trump has made energy a sure bet for Americans.
President Trump’s energy platform means affordable energy for all Americans and renewed strength for our industry.
Click here to read Trump’s responses to AEA’s candidate questionnaire.
Faithful to his campaign commitment, President Trump initiated a U.S. departure from the Paris Climate Agreement in June of 2017. By reversing his predecessor’s executive order committing the U.S. to the global emissions scheme, Trump has restored U.S. sovereignty over its own energy policy and has reasserted America’s position as a policy leader. The Paris Agreement was an America-last deal that gave China the mandate to continue its industrial expansions as the U.S. would have tightened its belt. Exiting the scheme restores balance to global politics, particularly with regard to the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, China.
During President Trump’s first term in office, the Unites States has become the world’s preeminent energy super power. The U.S. now produces more oil and gas than any other country, runs an energy export surplus, and has reserves that can fuel us for generations. In January 2020 the U.S. produced 13 million barrels per day of oil—an all-time record. Over the full course of 2019, the U.S. exported oil to more than 40 countries, fully eliminating the long-held concern about foreign oil dependency.
Though the coronavirus pandemic battered the industry in the spring of 2020, President Trump held firm against calls to raise prices on struggling consumers by way of an import tariff. Oil prices have rebounded as economies across the globe have begun to restart and the industry is on a road to recovery.
Since Trump’s election in 2016, U.S. natural gas has become a key plank in America’s foreign policy posture, offering countries in Eastern Europe an alternative to Russia’s regional energy hegemony in the form of liquified natural gas (LNG). Trump’s commitment to the bountiful energy reservoirs on U.S. federal lands and in federal waters means companies can plan for the long term and supply our energy needs deep into the future.
President Trump has wisely scaled the federal fuel economy program to levels that prioritize the needs of American families along with environmental concerns. Trump’s Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles rule, delivered in the spring of 2020, provides for gradually rising fuel economy—not the costly, impossible-to-meet, and dangerous standards set by the Obama administration. Trump’s fuel economy policy adheres to federal law and aims toward one national standard, rather than a piece-meal or California-centric standard. This policy saves families thousands of dollars on new and used cars and puts them back in the driver’s seat on vehicle choice.
President Trump and his State Department have given full support to the Keystone XL pipeline that would enter the country from Canada and deliver North American oil to Gulf Coast refineries.
The two Trump appointees to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, ruled with the majority of justices to end the ridiculous keep-it-in-the-ground campaign against pipelines in Appalachia.
President Trump’s Department of Energy has prioritized grid reliability and security. In 2017 the department issued a landmark report highlighting the immense importance of reliable, baseload electricity sources and the risks of a plunge toward intermittent energy.
Photo: Michael Stokes
Joe Biden has a long and undistinguished record on energy and economic policy. Four years removed from his post under Barack Obama, Biden is not expected to be a policy leader, but rather a vessel of the Democratic Party’s agenda. Though Biden built a blue-collar brand during his long career on Capitol Hill, he has chosen to sell out the American people to secure the support of left-wing environmentalists. The policies he has adopted in his run for a placeholder presidency cut hard against the values of working America.
Less a standard-bearer than a front man, Biden’s policies are likely to be generated by the collection of politicians and activists he’s surrounded himself with. A Biden election victory would end the American energy boom end. It would cost the country hundreds of thousands of jobs. It would drive up the cost of electricity and of transportation for all Americans. And it would put us on the road to economic decline.
Among the most concerning aspects of Biden’s 2020 platform are his desire for the U.S. to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, his support for an energy-draining Green New Deal, and his plan to put the brakes on American oil and gas development. These policies are popular among the Democratic Party activists that have embraced Biden, but they are losers with and for the American people.
Biden’s energy platform would put bureaucrats in charge, drive up energy costs for Americans, and hand power back to hostile regimes abroad.
Joe Biden would re-commit the U.S. to the Paris Climate Agreement. Under Biden’s plan, the U.S. would toe the globalist energy line, restricting our industrial output as China continues to expand. Biden proudly touts that he worked with the Chinese government during his stint as VP to get the Paris Agreement to the finish line. While Biden and Obama’s Paris commitment was to burden the U.S. with the failed Clean Power Plan, they agreed to allow the Chinese to continue increasing their emissions for another decade. China, it should be noted, already emits twice as much as the United States. Jumping back into the Paris Agreement means handing the reins of global industry to China.
Joe Biden favors a ban on new hydraulic fracturing and a ban on oil and gas development on federal lands and in federal waters. Biden’s ban on fracking and his ban on oil drilling on federal lands and offshore areas would have devastating results on the economy, jobs, and revenues, and energy prices would skyrocket. Several states would be impacted severely and directly—Texas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Wyoming.
By his own account, Biden will sign a series of new executive orders with unprecedented reach that go well beyond the Obama-Biden administration platform on squeezing out oil and gas. Biden’s overarching goal is the complete elimination of oil and gas from our economy by 2050.
Joe Biden’s 2020 platform seeks to upend the American lifestyle. While Trump favors affordability and safety, the Biden plan would ratchet up the cost of vehicles while spending billions on trains, buses, and electric vehicle subsidies that primarily benefit the wealthy and coastal urbanites.
Joe Biden opposes the Keystone XL pipeline. This policy switch alone would cost tens of thousands of jobs.
The two Supreme Court Justices appointed by Joe Biden’s boss, Barack Obama, dissented from the prevalent opinion on the Appalachian pipeline case. Had their position been held by the majority, a new precedent would have been set altering our energy future by hemming in our energy resources through the courts.
Biden’s electricity policy would not only be costly, it might be calamitous. He calls for a federal mandate that would put reliable sources of electricity like natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy at the back of the line while putting grid-taxing, intermittent wind and solar front and center. It is a recipe for higher costs and heightened reliability concerns.
This post appeared first on Natural Gas Now.