Trump outlines ‘America First’ energy planhttp://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/281430-trump-outlines-america-first-energy-planBy Timothy Cama and Devin Henry - 05/26/16 04:41 PM EDT
Donald Trump outlined an energy plan he’s calling “America First” on Thursday, using a speech in North Dakota’s oil country to promote oil, natural gas and coal for the country’s future.
The presumptive GOP nominee's plan, which shares a name with his foreign policy platform, is as much about helping the fossil fuel sector as it is about fighting what he sees as “job-killing” policies from the Obama administration that Hillary Clinton would only further.
It aligns closely with longstanding priorities of federal Republican policymakers, not also veers away from GOP orthodoxy as the billionaire businessman has done in other policy areas.
“American energy dominance will be declared a strategic, economic and foreign policy goal of the United States,” Trump said in the speech at a petroleum conference in Bismarck, N.D. “It’s about time.”
He said the country needs to better use its fossil fuel resources, resources that he said President Obama has locked away
“We will become and stay totally independent of any need to import energy from the OPEC cartel or any nations hostile to our interests,” Trump said.
“At the same time, we will work with our [Persian] Gulf allies to develop a positive energy relationship as part of our anti-terrorism strategy,” he said of countries that supply oil to the United States. “We’ll work with them, because we have to knock out terrorism.”
He said he’d allow far more oil, gas and coal production on federal land and offshore.
Trump’s speech was mostly scripted and read, something he does rarely, and usually only for policy-focused speeches.
He pledged to save the coal industry, though gave few specifics on how he would do that.
Trump would ask TransCanada Corp. to resubmit its application to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline through America’s heartland. Obama rejected the pipeline in November, but Trump said he would approve it, provided the U.S. gets a share of TransCanada’s profits in return.
“Why not? We’re making it possible, let’s take a piece of the action for you folks. You know, lower your taxes a little bit more,” he said.
He also briefly mentioned alternative energy sources like wind and solar power, but said they shouldn’t be promoted at the expense of “other forms of energy that right now are working much better.”
Trump slammed Obama for energy and environmental policies he says handcuffed the American energy industry, and he said Clinton would only expand on them.
He went through several Obama-era environmental decisions — from his “stupid” climate rule for power plants to his decision to limit oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean and on public lands — and said they had only limited what was already dramatic growth in several energy sectors.
Clinton, he said, would be even worse. He reminded the audience about her promise to impose a strict test for future fracking operations and her March statement that she would “put a lot of coal companies and coal miners out of business” out of business as president, a statement for which she has apologized.
November’s election is a “choice between sharing in this great energy wealth or sharing the poverty promised by Hillary Clinton,” he said.
“Obama has done everything he can to get in the way of American energy, for whatever reason,” Trump said. “If ‘crooked’ Hillary Clinton is in charge, things will get much worse, believe me.”
Any future regulations, Trump said, would be judged on whether they are good for American workers.
“If it doesn’t pass this test, this rule will not be, under any circumstances, approved,” he said.
But Trump didn’t leave the environment behind completely, promising to protect clean air and clean water.
Trump’s speech comes as he begins to refine his policy platform ahead of a general election campaign.
The Associated Press said Thursday that Trump has passed the 1,237 delegate mark, enough to clinch the Republican Party nomination later this summer.
The fossil fuel industry is typically a strong one for Republicans, and Trump has begun courting its support over the past few weeks.
Some industry officials, though, have said he needs to expand his platform behind surface-level promises to, for example, help coal miners in distressed parts of the country.
Trump and his backers, including Rep. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican who has advised him on energy policy, have said strong energy sector support will help Trump in the general election.
“I can’t imagine how [Clinton] could possibly do well in places like Pennsylvania,” Trump said at a press conference before his speech, again noting Clinton’s coal remarks.
“She certainly didn’t do very well in West Virginia. I think she made a big mistake and I think she’s catering to certain people.”
Environmental groups declared that Trump’s speech showed his administration would be disastrous for the environment.
“Trump's divisive language has made him a shocking candidate, but today he just pandered to the fossil fuel industry with a carbon-copy energy plan that could have been lifted directly from [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell
,” David Willet, spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement.
