Donald Trump has pledged to ramp up U.S. domestic oil production and undo some regulations to make that happen, the Republican presidential candidate told Bloomberg Businessweek in an exclusive interview published on Wednesday.
The interview with the former U.S. president took place at Mar-a-Lago in late June, two days before the first presidential debate and two weeks prior to the assassination attempt on Trump this weekend.
In a wide-ranging interview on many domestic and global issues, Trump said that energy costs will need to go down and America has the energy resources to help that happen.
“We have more liquid gold than anybody,” Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek.
“We need energy at low prices. The advantage we have all over almost every country including the very large ones is that we have more energy than anybody. We have more of the real energy, the energy that works,” the former president vying for another term in office said.
“Wind does not work. It’s too expensive,” said Trump, claiming that solar and wind farms are neither too good for the environment, nor too suitable to provide energy at low costs and prices.
Although Trump was light on details regarding domestic U.S. energy issues, it became clear that he would continue to support American oil and gas production if elected president.
If he wins in November, Trump is set to overturn or at least try to dismantle many of President Biden’s energy and climate policies, including methane rules, the pause on new LNG export permits, EV mandates, federal oil and gas leasing, and even parts of the Inflation Reduction Act.
However, dismantling the IRA would first need a Republican-controlled Congress with both House and Senate. And even then, it could be difficult to scale back or scrap the incentives, as they mostly benefit projects and jobs in Republican states, analysts say.
Trump’s pick for running mate, Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance, also suggests that a second Trump administration would back fossil fuels at the expense of clean energy.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
