Getting Back to an ‘America First’ Energy Policy
Before leaving office next week, the acerbic, old man in the White House made certain to deliver a parting shot against American energy consumers who rejected his policies at the ballot box.
The outgoing president’s executive order banning offshore oil drilling fits into a larger continuum of climate initiatives dating back to January 2021. That was when the Biden administration instituted its “whole-of-government approach” devoted to combatting what it views as a “climate crisis.” (RELATED: A Legal Analysis of Climate ‘Science’)
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to restore “America First” energy policies that were in place during his first term. Some of this can be done through executive actions, but, in some cases, Trump will need congressional help. (RELATED: Trump Cabinet Picks Will Balance Energy Abundance With True Conservation)
Drill, Baby, Drill
By invoking a 72-year-old law to ban offshore oil drilling in some federal waters with his executive order, it was clearly Biden’s intention to gum up the works for Trump. A 2019 federal court ruling would suggest that Congress would need to step in to reverse Biden’s ban. Apparently, the climate activists advising Biden knew what they were doing. But, in the meantime, there is much Trump can do on his own to restore America’s position as a global energy powerhouse.
For starters, Trump should submit the United Nation’s Paris Climate Agreement to the U.S. Senate where it can be properly viewed as a treaty in need of ratification. In his first administration, Trump made a strong case that the international agreement “handicaps the United States economy” without producing any benefits for the climate or the environment. The once and future president now has the opportunity to permanently free future U.S. policymakers from international commitments that raise energy costs for the American people. (RELATED: Climate ‘Changists’ Cashing In, European-Style)
Moreover, by aptly describing the agreement as a treaty and submitting it to the U.S. Senate Trump can restore that body’s constitutional “advice and consent” in our constitutional republic. Since a two-thirds vote is needed for ratification, the U.S. Senate would likely vote down the Paris Treaty. Trump could also take the additional step of withdrawing the U.S. from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which keeps the U.S. locked into anti-emissions goals that will prove costly to average citizens.
As America approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, now is a good time to cut ties with unaccountable international bureaucrats.
There’s more.
Follow the Science on CO2
The Trump administration should revoke the 2009 Endangerment Finding that declared Co2 a pollutant on the basis of highly specious findings. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA empowered Obama’s EPA with the ability to consider whether greenhouse gases should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
Updated research from scientists with the Co2 Coalition, a nonpartisan outfit headquartered in Virginia, punches all kinds of holes in U.N. climate studies based on faulty modeling. Not only is Co2 not a pollutant, according to the coalition’s studies, it is vital to life on Earth and highly beneficial to plants and animals.
A careful reading of the coalition’s findings shows the entire premise of the U.N.’s regulatory regime is based on false and misleading projections. Unfortunately, the U.N. had compliant actors in the Biden administration.
Oil and Gas Production
The American Energy Alliance, a nonprofit group that advocates for free market energy policies, has a running list of all the ways Biden and the Democrats have made it harder for the U.S. to produce oil and gas all in the name of climate change. That list is now up to 225 and begins with Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported oil resources from safe and reliable sources in Canada across western U.S. states and into Texas.
One of the most recent items on the list dates back to March last year when Biden announced a strategy to “‘decarbonize’ America’s freight truck fleet.” The fleet plays a critical role in domestic oil and gas production — both by transporting products to consumers and by moving industrial machinery to refineries. This is one area where Trump can easily reverse course and make certain that reliable freighters remain in motion.
But efforts to unwind Biden’s vindictive 11th-hour offshore drilling ban will be a heavier lift. Still, it’s an achievable goal. Congressional action to reopen areas Biden has cut off could possibly take place in the upcoming budget reconciliation bill. At stake is American access to future energy supplies in the waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico that could generate huge revenues and lower energy costs for future generations.
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