Republicans Have to Keep Pushing on Energy Policy: Here’s How
President Trump unleashed a flood of pro-energy executive orders on his first day in office. With a few signatures, he immediately rescinded President Biden’s ill-advised bans on liquified natural gas exports and gas and oil leasing on federal lands and waters. At the same time, he reoriented federal policy towards prioritizing energy abundance and away from the economically destructive policies of net zero.
Along with an executive order putting America first in international environmental agreements, President Trump also took massive steps forward in ensuring that the executive branch will no longer incubate climate alarmism within its own ranks, and fund it via the distribution of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds earmarked for so-called environmental justice programs.
These orders could represent the beginning of an energy policy revolution that puts the U.S. in prime position to capitalize on the increase in global demand for power from industrialization and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, they could mark a short interruption in a government-mandated green transition that has made consumers worse off and our country less secure.
As with any revolution, winning a battle is not enough; you need to reform institutions and develop long-lasting policies to ensure that the progress achieved endures beyond a single administration. The election of President Trump signified the start of a revolution in energy policy, now it’s up to Congress to sustain it into the future.
To assist with this effort, the Institute for Energy Research published the American Energy Blueprint, a comprehensive set of policy recommendations to guide the new Trump administration’s and Congress’s approach to energy policy. In the Blueprint, we outline key reforms in areas such as federal land and water use, expanding consumer choice, reducing subsidies, curbing government spending and taxation, streamlining regulations, and modernizing the permitting process—all of which create the conditions for producers to fulfill President Trump’s mission of energy abundance.
Starting with federal lands and waters, Congress needs to ensure that restrictions on oil, gas, and mineral leasing are a thing of the past. While President Trump can take important steps towards increasing production by releasing a new offshore leasing plan and approving permits for new mines, a future Democrat administration could reverse these gains by reinstating Biden’s anti-growth policies. Therefore, Congress should cement the ability to drill and mine on these lands and waters by turning mismanaged federal lands over to states and looking for opportunities for privatization. Alongside this reform, Congress must alter the Antiquities Act to require monument designations to be approved by Congress instead of unilaterally presidential declaration and repeal IRA provisions increasing royalty rates for drilling on federal lands.
The same goes for ensuring consumer choice in the automobile market. The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) 2027-2032 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards that undergird Biden’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate can be reduced by the Trump administration, but lasting reform requires Congress to repeal the parts of the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act that force the DOT to implement CAFE standards in the first place. Additionally, the Blueprint recommends repealing the Renewable Fuel Standard that forces refiners to blend more ethanol into gasoline beyond what would occur in a free market.
While the Republican’s slim House majority will make it difficult to get all of the Blueprint’s recommendations past the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, those involving the removal of the IRA’s tax credits for EVs and green energy can be instituted as part of the budget reconciliation process. President Trump has already taken steps in the meantime by freezing the disbursement of funds appropriated through the IRA and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but he needs Congress’s support if he wants to repeal these tax credits with an extension of his 2017 tax cuts.
For regulatory and permitting reform, the Blueprint recommends repealing the methane tax and reforming the National Environmental Policy Act, among other ideas.
I commend the steps President Trump has taken towards pursuing American energy dominance, but he cannot do it alone. Congressional Republicans need to be actively pursuing legislation that creates a free market in energy — the Blueprint is a guide on how to do that.
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