Free our energy sector from crippling regulations and inflationary spending on so-called “green energy” – what about watts?

John R. Hays, Jr.

President Donald Trump now has a second chance to rid the U.S. energy industry of unnecessary and costly regulations, including oppressive, meaningless caps that endanger our energy independence and empower foreign markets.

Change is urgently needed, especially since Joe Biden has reversed three-quarters of Trump's deregulation actions that prioritized U.S. energy independence and natural resources. Biden has backed down from President Trump's sanctions on the Keystone XL pipeline, imposing onerous regulations on emissions of naturally occurring gases like methane and sidestepping legislation by requiring federal agencies to come up with broad proposals for achieving carbon neutrality. program.

Additionally, the Biden administration’s disastrously misunderstood Inflation Reduction Act raised energy prices, spiked inflation, and failed to deliver the clean energy boost it promised.

With Congress now in his capacity, President Trump can take the lead in adopting much-needed energy reforms that have been blocked or overturned and can encourage policies that lower costs, foster energy independence and stability, and put the interests and well-being of the United States first .

President Trump has made great strides in his first term with environmental and energy sector deregulation, such as suspending participation in the Paris Climate Agreement, replacing the Clean Power Plan with the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, and elevating Natural gas and oil extraction ban. But because most of these reforms are temporary solutions in the form of executive orders, it is critical that President Trump’s second-term policies create sustainable, long-term change and that Congress enact them into law.

Overall, President Trump's energy and environmental philosophy must remain one of free enterprise, economic stability and independence from foreign adversaries. There are several steps he can take, and encourage Congress to adopt, to restore stability and excellence in American energy.

First, he should focus on eliminating harmful subsidies that distort energy markets and effectively double the capital cost of electricity generation. Wind energy subsidies are an example of these irrelevant expenditures in the name of climate justice. On the contrary, they discourage innovation, reduce competition and raise prices for consumers.

Second, the new administration should roll the scalpel of relaxation into countless unnecessary environmental and energy regulations that prevent competition, discourage energy development, and have no other justification, such as regulations on naturally occurring gas emissions such as methane.

Next, President Trump should encourage Congress to unleash our natural resources for greater innovation and economic growth. This could be achieved by blocking restrictions on natural gas use for appliances, promoting the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG), facilitating the construction of new pipelines as well as existing uses, and streamlining the leasing of federal lands for oil and gas development, such as the Alaska National Petroleum Conservation area and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The latter is especially important given Biden's recent actions to prevent more than 625 million acres of offshore land from being drilled, and President Trump should take every action to reverse it.

To achieve these goals, the permitting process for energy projects must be reformed and streamlined to eliminate unreasonable permitting and address the inefficiencies and multi-year processing delays that stifle energy development and growth. Process Energy projects allow for a timely and efficient approach that will put American jobs on the fast track to energy independence and ignite innovation in cleaner, alternative energy sources like nuclear power generation.

In the end, U.S. domestic energy policy can only do so much for the environment and reduce the effects of any anthropomorphic climate change, since the U.S. contributes only a small portion of so-called “greenhouse gases.” Furthermore, human activity is not the sole determinant of climate change, and many changes are caused by environmental phenomena beyond human control, such as sunspots, volcanic activity, changes in the Earth's orbit, and changes in carbon dioxide levels. It is critical that the incoming administration has a clear, comprehensive energy agenda that stabilizes the economy and cuts burdensome, politically correct regulations while still exploring cleaner, more efficient sources of sustainable energy. The two are not mutually exclusive. Now is the perfect time for the incoming administration to prioritize its integration.

Ultimately, a new energy and environmental policy platform must protect taxpayers from free spending in the name of “clean energy” — the $1 trillion fiscal cost of the Inflation Reduction Act is a case in point. It must include them in important climate and energy policy discussions and recommendations, and it must prevent inevitable energy shortages and inflation under today's progressive regulations and caps.

Employees at environmental and energy agencies must be transparent and accountable to the American people about the costs of policies and regulations enacted in the name of preventing global warming. Broad climate and energy policy discussions should take place in the public sphere, not behind the closed doors of the EPA and DOE.

U.S. energy and environmental policy is no longer just a debate about whether anthropomorphic climate change exists and whether fossil fuels are responsible for global warming—it has evolved into an economic and national security issue that affects every American. The country needs energy independence not only to succeed, but also to survive. The threat of foreign aggression is on all fronts. Adversaries who depend on us for critical energy supplies are reckless and irresponsible.

Thankfully, conservatives finally have another opportunity to unlock the reliability, abundance, and affordability of our energy sector by freeing up our natural resources and eliminating anti-development regulations.

Finally, the new administration can attack Biden-Harris’ progressive climate agenda, which does nothing but squander American energy potential and hard-working Americans, all in the name of “saving the planet.” This signaling policy is neither economic nor scientific, and the next four years present an excellent opportunity to overturn their economic growth, innovation, and energy stability, leaving America's vast natural resources as possible.

John R. Hays, Jr. is a long-time energy attorney based in Austin, Texas. From 2008 to 2023, he served as Adjunct Professor of Energy Law and Policy at the University of Texas School of Law.

This article was originally published by RealClearenergy and provided via Realclearwire.

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