OPINION: Trump’s greatest achievement would be getting energy policies right

March 3, 2025

Gary Abernathy

TEA Columnist

March 3rd, 2025

Numerous pending disasters were averted – or at least mitigated – when voters rejected Kamala Harris and four more years of Biden administration policies and returned Donald Trump to the White House. But of all the existing and looming calamities – open borders, a weakened military, a failing economy, a weaponized FBI and Department of Justice – reversing the capitulation to the climate change cult may have averted the greatest catastrophe of all. 

Our borders can be secured and illegal immigrants found and deported. Our military can be restored and refocused on its mission to defend our country. Our economy can be turned around with smarter tax policies and by reducing regulations. Our law enforcement agencies can purge their political actors and replace them with law enforcement professionals. 

But demanding unattainable emissions restrictions and committing trillions of dollars toward handouts and subsidies for unproven alternative technologies – all to replace the world’s most reliable and affordable energy sources – might have been the Biden-Harris administration’s most irreversible catastrophe, had they been given four more years to crystalize their dystopian nightmare. 

Had it been allowed to reach fruition, the Biden-Harris administration’s war on affordable energy would have devastated our economy, put our energy security at risk, and even threatened our national sovereignty. 

The warning signs of what was to come were evident in the costs borne by the average American family throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, beginning after he cancelled the Keystone pipeline, initiated a war on gas appliances, and severely impeded new oil and gas permits. As a result, home heating and cooling costs jumped, gas pump prices soared, and appliance costs rose by an estimated 34 percent. 

Biden’s defenders, including many in the media, claim that Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine sparked rising energy prices. But as energy researcher Philip Rossetti wrote last August, “Gasoline prices were surging before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and had already risen by $1.16 per gallon by that point since Biden took office (with another $1.45 per gallon to go). But even with prices falling since then, gasoline is still about 77 cents per gallon higher today than it was in July 2019.”

The Biden Administration was always well aware that their radical energy agenda was unpopular with most Americans. That’s why they cloaked it behind other names – the “Inflation Reduction Act” and the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” – to usher in the most extremist energy policies in history. Biden later said that he wished his administration had been upfront about what the “inflation” bill really was – a $391 billion climate bill subsidizing solar and wind projects and their associated studies and handouts. 

“The Inflation Reduction Act — I wish I hadn’t called it that, because it has less to do with reducing inflation than it does to do with dealing with providing for alternatives that generate economic growth,” Biden finally confessed in 2023. 

For its part, the $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” bill – while ostensibly making needed improvements to the nation’s electric grid, and earmarking funds for other projects – created 60 new Energy Department programs and included “competitive grants for constructing microgrid projects involving distributed energy resources like EVs, solar, energy storage, and more,” as described by one leading alternative energy company.

While Trump can reverse many Biden administration initiatives by executive action, he will need Congress’ help to repeal legislation and undo the most lasting damage. But if funds earmarked for “clean energy” initiatives can’t be entirely recouped, the Trump administration should at least try to redirect them to projects that actually work. 

For instance, natural gas is a proven energy source that is affordable, reliable, and clean. Natural gas already powers appliances in households in the U.S. and around the world. And experts – including those at the Energy Department – agree that existing vehicles can have their engines converted to operate on natural gas.  

Imagine if the trillions of dollars targeted for fantastical pie-in-the-sky new energy sources were redirected to research and development of more realistic climate protection and pollution-fighting endeavors – projects such as landfill methane captures for use as fuel, enhanced plastics recycling, and building modern new refineries in the U.S. that can refine America’s own shale-based, light sweet oil instead of depending on foreign countries to do the job. 

Thanks to U.S. voters last November, America and the world have been given a second chance to recalibrate our priorities. While he can build a record of accomplishment on a number of foreign and domestic fronts over the next four years, getting our energy policy right would be President Trump’s most meaningful achievement – now, and for generations to come. 

Gary Abernathy is a longtime newspaper editor, reporter and columnist. He was a contributing columnist for the Washington Post from 2017-2023 and a frequent guest analyst across numerous media platforms. He is a contributing columnist for The Empowerment Alliance, which advocates for realistic approaches to energy consumption and environmental conservation.