There isn’t much daylight between the eight leading 2024 Republican presidential candidates regarding energy policy. They all generally vow to “unleash America’s energy” and rescind President Joe Biden’s “green energy” policies.
But Nikki Haley found a sliver of separation between the GOP field and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who the former South Carolina governor said is “against energy independence” during a Sept. 27 debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, Calif.
“Ron DeSantis is against fracking. He’s against drilling,” she said. “He always talks about what happens on Day One. You better watch what happens on Day Two. Day Two is when you’re in trouble.”
Ms. Haley was referring to an executive order Mr. DeSantis issued two days after assuming office for his first term in January 2019 directing the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to end all fracking in Florida and “take necessary actions to adamantly oppose all off-shore oil and gas activities off every coast in Florida.”
“Day Two in Florida, you ban fracking, you ban offshore drilling, you did it on federal lands,” Ms. Haley said. “And you took green subsidies that you didn’t have to take” from the federal government.
Mr. DeSantis told Ms. Haley she was “totally wrong” in her assessment. He issued the executive order in January 2019 after state voters approved a Constitutional amendment in November 2018 banning fracking by nearly 70 percent.
Mr. DeSantis campaigned in 2018 and 2022 as “a Teddy Roosevelt environmentalist” in protecting Florida’s natural resources, which aren’t oil and gas but environmentally sensitive beaches, farmlands, and aquifers.
“With Florida’s geological makeup of limestone and shallow water sources, fracking presents a danger to our state that is not acceptable,” the governor’s 2018 campaign website said.
In 2022, Mr. DeSantis campaigned for reelection on much of that same platform, protecting Florida’s beaches from oil spills and pushing state lawmakers to ban fracking across the state.
“We have a constitutional amendment that does not allow offshore drilling. And so that’s something that we honor,” Mr. DeSantis said during a recent New Hampshire stump gaggle. “That is not saying that I think that should apply to Louisiana or Texas. So that will continue.”
“We’re going to choose Midland over Moscow. We’re going to choose the Marcellus over the Mullahs and we’re going to choose Bakken over Beijing,” he said. “And we are going to lower your gas prices. We are going to get that job done. Because it’s important for our national security. It’s important for jobs and that’s one of the best ways to drive down inflation.”
The exchange between Ms. Haley and Mr. DeSantis highlighted a brief foray into energy policy during the 2024 campaign’s second GOP presidential debate, which featured numerous snappy back-and-forth broadsides between the seven hopefuls.
Former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner, again opted not to attend. On the stage with Ms. Haley and Mr. DeSantis were former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Messrs. Ramaswamy and Pence were the only other candidates who fielded energy policy questions.
With crude oil edging up to $100 a barrel again and “drill, baby, drill” answers blocked and locked in litigation, how would he bring down prices without immediate drilling? Mr. Ramaswamy was asked.
“Well, look, I think that we do have to run through the courts and get through the administrative state to make sure we’re using the natural resources here at home,” he said, not saying much of anything.
Mr. Pence had a more detailed response, recalling “one of the signature accomplishments” of the Trump-Pence administration “was in just a few short years, we achieved energy independence. We became a net exporter of energy for the first time in 75 years.”
All that was undone “on Day One” of the current administration when “Joe Biden declared war on energy, which was no surprise because when Joe Biden ran for president, he said he was going to ‘end fossil fuels.’ And they’ve been working overtime to do that ever since.”
If president, Mr. Pence said, “We’re going to open up federal lands. We’re going to unleash American energy. We’re going to have an all-of-the-above energy strategy and a plan that actually would not only reclaim energy independence but regain our position as the leading energy producer on Earth.”
Views On Climate Change
Most of the GOP presidential candidates acknowledge climate change is real but believe current policies—especially those promoting “green energy” initiatives at the expense, they say, of fossil fuel development—are causing more harm than good.Mr. Trump, who often mocks climate science, and Mr. Ramaswamy, who calls climate change “a hoax,” are the only two who openly dismiss global warming as real.
Meanwhile, Messrs., DeSantis, Scott, Pence, Christie, Burgum, and Ms. Haley all agree climate change is happening. They vary, however, in what they would do about it.
Mr. Scott told The Post & Courier in Columbia, S.C., that there “is no doubt that man is having an impact on our environment. There is no doubt about that. I am not living under a rock” but thinks current policies are over-reacting.
Ms. Haley said she supports carbon-capture technology but opposes the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce emissions, which she maintains “would cost trillions and destroy our economy.”
Mr. Pence, as with Mr. Scott, maintains climate change is exaggerated by “radical environmentalists” and rejects the scientific consensus the United States must reach net-zero emissions by 2050, calling it “completely unfeasible.”
Mr. Christie is amenable to some recent federal actions on climate change but also believes regulatory policies are misdirected and over-reactive.
Mr. Burgum supports carbon capture and, as a Republican governor—in an energy-producing state, no less—he has pushed harder to address climate change than most contemporaries by making carbon neutrality a North Dakota goal by 2030.
DeSantis: Midland Over Moscow
Among goals in Mr. DeSantis’s ‘Freedom To Fuel Plan’ is to “replace climate change ideology with energy dominance in all national security and foreign policy guidance,“ which would include “refilling” the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, revitalizing ”our nuclear energy industry,” repeal Biden administration’s “EV mandates,” prohibit environmental, social, and governance (ESG) regulations.Mr. DeSantis’s public lands management policy, which is essentially the energy policy, would undo ‘Waters of The United States’ (WOTUS) rule extensions, which he maintains the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sought to extend “far beyond anything a riverboat could navigate, to rivulets, ditches, and potholes,”
Under his ‘Freedom To Fuel Plan,’ Mr. DeSantis would “reform environmental permitting and end green lawfare” by streamlining the environmental review process, work with states to reduce permitting duplication, and prevent ”abusive litigation by environmental groups and defund ideological activism.”
The Florida governor’s policy would boost the production of critical minerals, including uranium, and create a Critical Mineral Strategic Reserve.
Pence: Energy Expansion Plan
Mr. Pence on Aug. 8 outlined his ‘Energy Expansion Plan’ with the “clear goal of overtaking China as the world’s number-one energy producer” and total domestic energy independence by 2040.Mr. Pence’s policy would allow more drilling on federal lands, cut permitting time in half, remove restrictions on natural gas production, replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, lift regulations that prohibit year-round access to E-15 ethanol blends, and shut down the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Environmental Policy.
His policy would direct the federal government to pursue an “all of the above” energy strategy, increase refining capacity, remove restrictions on natural gas production, remove regulations that increase electricity costs, and prohibit taxpayer subsidies for any form of energy.
Mr. Pence said his policy is geared to “turning back the failed policies of the Biden administration, ending Joe Biden’s war on energy, and unleashing American energy resources” while also “casting a bold vision for America to become the number one energy producer in the world by 2040.”
Haley: Hands-Off Approach
Ms. Haley elaborated on her energy policy unveiled in June on Sept. 25 at the American Energy Security Summit in Oklahoma City, claiming in her remarks, “In Joe Biden, we have a president who seems to genuinely hate American energy.”Ms. Haley blasted the Biden administration for throttling the United States’ energy potential while relying on foreign adversaries for imports to keep gas prices down, canceling the Keystone Pipeline, restricting drilling off U.S. coasts, tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and permitting oil production in Venezuela.
“My goal isn’t just energy independence, though we should always have that. My goal is to make America energy-dominant,” she exclaimed.
Ms. Haley’s energy policy would boost oil production with a “more hands-off approach in energy production,” ensure “speedy permission and building of interstate pipelines,” stand up to “radical environmental groups” who have dominated the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and “roll back Biden’s wasteful green energy subsidies and regulations,” including those in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that she maintains could cost taxpayers up to $1.2 trillion in the coming years.
Scott: 10-Point Blueprint
Mr. Scott posted his energy policy as part of a broader 10-point economic blueprint he released on Sept. 14, claiming his plan would double the nation’s nuclear energy production within 10 years.“I will stop choking off American fossil fuels and ramp up oil and gas development and permitting,” his plan states, by rescinding “all Biden rules and EAs [Environmental Assessments] on energy and to “accelerate oil and gas development on federal land and water.”
Mr. Scott’s plan would “reverse the far left’s war on nuclear energy” and double the nation’s nuclear energy production in 10 years by auditing “every policy and regulation that touches nuclear energy” to orchestrate “regulatory reform” and create tax credits faster permitting to establishing a National Strategic Reserve of nuclear fuel.
“I will champion ethanol and biofuels and support America’s farmers who are growing our way toward energy independence,” his plan states, vowing to “provide certainty to growers and producers with year-round E15 and support the Renewable Fuel Standard.”
Ramaswamy: America First 2.0
Any specifics in Mr. Ramaswamy’s energy policy are often drowned out by his standard stump pitch that the “climate change agenda” is a “hoax ... more about pushing global equity” than developing inexpensive, job-generating access to energy.His plan will “Drill, frack & burn coal: abandon the climate cult & unshackle nuclear energy” and “Launch deregulatory ‘Reagan 2.0’ revolution” by eliminating 75 percent of federal staff regulators.
Mr. Ramaswamy describes himself as an “environmentalist” but enthusiastically supports fracking while also promoting carbon-free energy like nuclear, saying during an early September stump speech in Iowa that oil, gas, and other natural resources should be extracted to pay down the national debt.
Christie: All-Of-The-Above
Mr. Christie favors an “all-of-the-above strategy” with energy with an emphasis on expanding nuclear power.“Nuclear can really help us reach both reliability and to get down to net zero on carbon, we need to continue to support and develop wind and solar,” Mr. Christie said during a September radio interview in New Hampshire.
His “all-of-the-above” plan calls for a “balanced portfolio of energy across all consumption sectors,” including electric power, end-user transportation, industrial, residential, and commercial sectors “to protect reliability, resiliency, and price volatility.”
Burgum: The Energy Governor
The governor of one of the United States’ largest energy-producing states, Mr. Burgum’s first act in implementing his energy plan would be to reverse Mr. Biden’s policies, which are “180 degrees wrong.”Despite leading an oil- and gas-producing state, Mr. Burgum’s plan also supports alternative fuels, such as ethanol, and touts North Dakota’s plan to get to carbon neutrality by 2030.
“We’re doing it with zero mandates, zero regulations,” he told voters in Iowa in August, emphasizing that “Innovation over regulation is how you solve the challenges we face today. Regulation looks backward and innovation looks towards the future.”
Trump: Drill, Baby, Drill
Mr. Trump maintains in one of his campaign’s Agenda 47 policy statements that he will “on Day One, rescind every one of Joe Biden’s industry-killing, jobs-killing, pro-China and anti-American electricity regulations, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, end Biden’s delays in federal drilling permits and leases … free up the vast stores of liquid gold on America’s public land for energy development.”Among his priorities would be approving natural gas pipelines into Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York; keeping the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve stocked; supporting nuclear energy production by modernizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and investing in innovative small modular reactors; and, “again exit the horrendously unfair Paris Climate Accords.”
The former president pledges “to stop frivolous litigation from environmental extremists,” revamp the nation’s mining policies, champion hydroelectric power, and provide tax relief to oil, gas, and coal producers.
“President Trump will immediately stop insane wind subsidies, and DOE and EPA regulations that prevent Americans from buying incandescent lightbulbs, gas stoves, quality dishwashers and shower heads,” his Agenda 47 policy statement said.
