According to Bloomberg, President Donald Trump intends to roll out a new energy policy that will turn away from the Obama-era drive to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. Instead, the policy goal is to establish American “dominance” in all forms of power generation, oil, gas, coal, nuclear, and renewables. The new policy will not only reflect the president’s skepticism about human-caused climate change but aligns energy policy more toward market realities.
American as a net exporter of oil, natural gas, and coal
The center of Trump’s new policy is informed by the fact that the fracking boom has made the United States a net exporter of fossil fuels.
The development, which ironically took place during the most anti-fossil fuel president since Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, has upended the international Oil And Gas markets. For the past 40 years, since the first energy crisis, oil and gas markets have been dominated by OPEC, led by the Arab Gulf states. That situation placed the United States and the rest of the West in the uncomfortable position of being dependent on foreigners who did not have its best interests at heart.
Now, with the United States shipping oil and gas overseas, that situation has changed. Now America is set to control energy markets, stabilizing prices, and ensuring the availability of energy around the world. Trump’s new policy will encourage this process, opening up federal lands and offshore territories to drilling.
Peace will be declared in the war on Coal.
Nuclear power to see a revival?
Nuclear power, despite its role in mitigating carbon emissions, has not seen prosperity during the past decade. Bureaucratic red tape lengthens the approval of new nuclear plants past a decade or more, making them uncompetitive. Trump means to change that, noting the smaller, safer modular nuclear power stations will have an increasing role in generating energy in the United States.
Solar and wind energy not to be neglected
While renewable energy will no longer have a dominant position in American energy policy, the new administration will not ignore that growing sector. Most intriguing is the idea that the president seems to have adapted to turn the planned border wall into a giant solar power collector.
Energy dominance means American dominance
The goal of this new energy policy is to enhance American power around the world by creating a dominant position in power generation, replacing OPEC in that role. Now American interests will have to be listened to and accommodated by an energy-hungry planet. Fighting climate change will no longer be a priority, except, as in the case of Mexico, as a means to establish and maintain American influence.
