Former President Donald Trump has released a campaign video in which he outlined his vision for domestic energy production while drawing a contrast with President Joe Biden’s energy policies, which Trump called a “massive tax hike” on consumers and a gift to America’s rivals like China.
“When I’m back in the White House, I will bring back a pro-American energy policy,” Trump said in the video, touting policies that he championed while president that were poised to make the United States “energy dominant.”
He argued that Biden’s green policies have driven up domestic energy production costs, in turn driving up costs for American families while benefiting China in part because the regime in Beijing “signs up for every stupid globalist climate deal and then immediately breaks it.”
Trump vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris climate deal, which he did while president, but Biden immediately reversed that move after taking office.
In June 2017, Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, citing the economic cost of the accord and the negative impact it would have on American workers and businesses.
At the time, Trump argued that being in the climate pact was unfair to the United States as it would put a bigger burden on America to cut emissions while letting other nations continue polluting at higher levels.
Trump took the opportunity of the video address to criticize what he described as Biden’s “radical” energy policies, calling them a “gift to China” and a big factor in driving America’s heavy industry overseas.
The former president singled out Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, reentry into the Paris climate deal, and taking measures that restricted impending energy projects like halting new oil and gas leases.
“In effect, Biden’s anti-American energy crusade is a massive tax hike on everything. Higher energy costs raise the price of food, raw materials, shipping, transportation, construction, manufacturing, and everything else,” Trump said.
‘Hunt Down Every Unnecessary Regulation’
In the video, Trump vowed to eliminate regulations that hold back domestic production and pledged to rapidly approve energy infrastructure projects to bring down prices and provide job opportunities for young Americans.Addressing regulatory hurdles, Trump pledged to “deploy a team of warrior lawyers to hunt down every unnecessary regulation in the federal registry that hampers domestic production” and to “rapidly issue approvals for all worthy energy infrastructure projects with a focus on maximum speed to bring prices down rapidly.”
The former president also touched on the atmosphere of panic around climate change, saying he'd help young Americans shake off the mood of gloom and despair and “help restore hope” to them.
“Instead of being irrationally terrified by political predictions of climate apocalypse, instead of toiling for low wages or left-wing make-work projects, I have a vision that will give young Americans a chance to find real meaning in work once again,” Trump said.
This would involve “building the backbone of America that is powerful, prosperous, productive, vigorous, modern, independent, and free,” Trump added.
He said that the United States has vast amounts of “liquid gold” that’s waiting to be tapped both for prosperity and domestic energy security.
“We will use it and profit by it and live with it, and we will be rich again, and we will be happy again and will be proud again,” he said.
Trump took the opportunity of the video address to highlight the impact of his previous energy policies, which saw the United States start exporting more energy than it was consuming for the first time since the 1950s.
Biden and Trump have competing visions for America’s energy policy.
While Trump has been focused on maximizing the ability of the fossil fuel industry to continue to provide affordable and plentiful energy and protect it from attacks by climate alarmists, Biden has bought into the climate fight, pushing for America to take a leading role in cutting carbon while subsidizing green energy.
Coinciding with the release of Trump’s video outlining his vision for U.S. energy production, the American Petroleum Institute, a fossil fuel lobby, issued a statement supportive of the former president’s overall thrust.
