Energy, climate policy and the next administration
One cannot speak about climate policy and energy policy separately. They are joined at the hip. In this election, however, there is a deep division between the two candidates on these issues.
Start with Donald Trump. He famously called climate change a “hoax,” though recently he has conceded that human activity has had “some effect” on the climate. We have seen his impact on Republican voters. Polls show only 23% — mainly young — Republicans think climate change is a problem.
In terms of policy, Trump leads the chants of “drill baby drill” at his rallies and he asked oil company executives to donate $1 billion to his campaign with the quid pro quo well understood. He has also called for the repeal of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act — Trump calls it the Green New Scam — and its basket of tax breaks for clean energy.
What’s interesting is that if Trump tried to repeal the IRA he would meet fierce resistance from — wait for it — Republicans and oil company executives. How so?
While the bulk of the economic activity loosed by the IRA is yet to come, four-fifths of the early beneficiaries are from GOP districts. Start with Midwestern farmers who want to keep the breaks for ethanol production flowing.
One oil-and-gas lobbyist said his clients will “go to the mat” to prevent the repeal of the IRA because it greatly benefits their work to develop clean hydrogen and carbon capture technologies. Dan Brouillette, Trump’s former Energy Secretary, now representing utility owners, says he will defend the IRA.
The GOP platform says it wants to see the U.S. become “the world’s largest energy producer, by far.” Yes, China is the world’s largest producer of energy overall, but the U.S. has been the largest oil producer six years running. One oil executive noted: “No federal policy restricts near-term production.”
President Biden has issued more drilling permits in his first three years than did President Trump after coming to the realization that he could not legally stop drilling on federal lands where there were valid leases and, duh, Americans like cheap gas.
For Vice President Harris’s part, she has been hit over the head for a position she took five years ago to ban fracking, a position she reversed a year later. It is salient in a battleground state like Pennsylvania, though currently the biggest concern for natural gas producers in Pennsylvania is the over-supply and low prices.
The Democratic platform touts the hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs created by the IRA, the hundreds of millions in private investment unleashed, and argues this will lower both electricity rates and gas prices. It calls for more research into clean energy and climate resiliency.
Consider: The number of climate-related natural disasters (think Hurricane Helene) in the United States that cost more than $1 billion has increased from an average of 3.3 per year in the 1980s to more than 17 per year from 2014—2023. In 2023, the United States experienced a historic number of billion-dollar disasters. Some folks can’t get home insurance anymore.
If you believe that human activity — primarily the burning of fossil fuels — is warming the planet and causing damage that is only growing worse, there is really only one choice in this election. If you believe we must prevent China from dominating the clean energy technologies of the future, there is only one choice in this election. If you believe America needs to take a leadership role in pushing every nation in the world to do its part to address climate change, there is only one choice in this election.
Only Harris has said she is prepared to take on these challenges.
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• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86. His new book “American Dreams: The Story of the Cyprus Fulbright Commission” is available from Amazon.com.