May 3rd, 2024

• Stay up to date on all things energy by visiting the TEA Newsroom.
• Natural Gas CARES: It is Clean, Affordable, Reliable Energy Security.
• Solar civil war shades Biden’s climate calculus.
• The Ohio Senate wants Biden’s new natural gas policy stopped.
• Meet the top-paid green group bosses.
• Opinion: Electric grid wars are a direct assault on the Western middle class.
• Biden’s plans to electrify trucking face harsh reality in the desert.

The issue: It’s exciting to imagine how Trump 2.0 could transform the Department of Energy. Energy policy would do a complete 180-degree turnaround if the former president gets elected to a second term.

Why it matters: Most believe with a GOP victory in the November, all the taxpayer-subsidized, unreliable, and Chinese supply chain-dependent energy policies that have been implemented by the Biden administration would be reversed fairly quickly.

We would expect and welcome more oil and gas permitting, aggressive deregulation and federal career staff relegated to the sidelines. Details are scarce, according to media reports, but it’s almost certain that Trump and a new team would act swiftly on many energy-related fronts.

The campaign claims it would “unleash the production of domestic energy resources” and “eliminate the socialist Green New Deal.”

Consider: 

• It could also result in regulatory rollbacks at the EPA for power plants and cars.
• The green light given at the Interior Department for more fossil fuel development on public lands.
• U.S. participation in the Paris climate accord also would likely end, something Trump did in his first term.

To be fair, for the last six years — starting under Trump’s term and continuing to today — the U.S. has annually produced “more crude oil than any country, ever,” according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But these gains have been made in spite of the green-at-any-cost mindset that pervades the White House and the EPA and multiple hurdles placed in an effort to curb those gains.

Bottom Line: A second term for Trump would be a win for voters who care about energy affordability. With the stroke of a pen, the barriers Biden created for oil and gas producers could be removed and a new era of American energy dominance could begin. Drill, baby, drill!

The issue: President Biden is intent on pushing ahead with his renewables programs and ramping up his promise to eliminate all fossil-fuel power plants, as foolish as that all sounds. This Wall Street Journal editorial points out the disastrous consequences of the latest EPA ruling. The result will be a rationing of electricity.

Why it matters: If implemented, these new regulations will hit American families and businesses right in their wallet and bottom lines. This is an orchestrated attempt by Biden and his green-at-any-cost bureaucrats to eliminate domestic natural gas and coal plants — and the negative effects on our incomes and livelihoods surely would be felt.

• Natural gas is abundant and it’s 3.4 times more affordable than electricity as a residential energy source for the same amount of delivered energy.
• If this becomes law then it will become increasingly difficult for the U.S. to produce clean, efficient energy. That’s unfortunate since the U.S. continued to cut emissions in 2023, led by natural gas.
• The EPA plans to unveil soon another rule to reduce CO2 emissions from existing gas-fired plants, so some of them may also have to shut down.
• With electricity prices up 30% over the past 3 years, making it harder to produce reliable, affordable energy is the worst possible idea.

Consider: Meanwhile, reports say that the administration is moving to speed up permits for clean energy. The move comes as President Biden rushes to push through  a slew of major environmental rules ahead of the presidential election, including policies to limit climate-warming pollution from cars, trucks, power plants and oil and gas wells.

• Natural gas is responsible for 61% of the decline in U.S. electric power carbon dioxide emissions since 2005.
• All of this regulatory uncertainty will discourage the development of new gas-fired plants — even as coal plants are forced to retire.
• Renewables simply can’t provide reliable power around the clock to fill the gap.

Bottom Line: Electricity rates across the country have skyrocketed since 2021, thanks to Biden’s force-fed green agenda. The EPA’s new power plant regulations will make matters worse and Americans will pay the price in higher bills.

It’s May, which means we’re getting close to peak driving season. That hasn’t seemed to have a major effect on gas prices, with the national average of $3.66 remaining unchanged over the past week. In related news, OPEC is signaling that it will continue production cuts into the second half of the year, all but ensuring that gas prices will rise this summer.

Hearing On EPA Budget: On Wednesday, May 8, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will have a hearing on the FY 2025 Budget Request for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Hearing On Interior Budget: On Wednesday, May 8, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies will have a hearing to examine proposed budget estimates and justification for FY 2025 for the Department of the Interior.

“Political force has overridden market forces. What we need to get back to is letting market forces rule. Let the cheapest, most reliable, cleanest energy come to the stage.”

— Toby Rice, CEO of EQT.