OPINION:
As if the election of Donald Trump, who has called human-caused climate change a hoax, weren’t enough to darken the days of climate activists and subsidy-dependent green energy companies, his naming of fracking magnate Chris Wright to head the Department of Energy underscores the radical change in direction coming to Washington in January.
Mr. Trump, who has vowed to end electric vehicle mandates and expressed his loathing for offshore wind turbines, has found a kindred spirit in Mr. Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy, a Denver oil and natural gas fracking service company.
The president-elect has credited him as “one of the pioneers who helped launch the Shale Revolution.” Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Wright rejects the narrative that the use of fossil fuels is driving a climate crisis.
“There is no ’climate crisis,’” Mr. Wright said in a video he posted last year on LinkedIn, adding that “the only thing resembling a crisis with respect to climate change is the regressive, opportunity-squelching justified in the name of climate change,” The Washington Post reported.
Upon confirmation by the Senate, the MIT engineering graduate will have his hands full reengineering the sprawling DOE from a place where the Biden administration disbursed billions of dollars in congressionally approved funds to support an assortment of “climate-friendly” projects and technologies.
The Biden DOE also tightened standards for gas-powered stoves, heaters and furnaces, with the goal of regulating them out of the market and replacing them with electric models. Mr. Wright can be expected to reverse DOE policies that effectively ban gas-fueled household appliances, an administrative process that takes time but yields results.
Another target will be the Biden administration’s January moratorium on approving new liquefied natural gas export terminals, pending a DOE review of their climate and other environmental impacts. A federal judge overturned the moratorium in July, but the DOE has been slow to restart the approval process.
With eager customers for U.S. LNG in Europe and Asia and thousands of jobs at stake at proposed new export terminals along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts (and even one in Alaska), look for Mr. Wright’s DOE to stop the foot-dragging and speed things up.
A trickier problem will be handling the billions of dollars in subsidies and grants earmarked for green products and technologies under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. This law expanded the DOE’s Loan Program Office tenfold to a whopping $400 billion, transforming it into the takeout window for the climate cartel. Some of that congressionally allocated spending could be clawed back or eliminated, depending on how much resistance comes from Republican lawmakers who want to protect green pork projects in their districts or states.
In an August letter, 18 House Republicans urged that some Inflation Reduction Act spending projects be preserved, pointing to an uphill fight to nix all green handouts. And oil giants such as Exxon, Chevron and Occidental Petroleum are eager to pocket tax credits for unproven carbon capture and storage schemes.
A wild card could be Mr. Trump’s creation of the Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate waste in the federal government. Led by Elon Musk and Vivel Ramaswamy, the outside-of-government commission will have no legal authority to do anything. But the political heft these entrepreneurs bring to the table, coupled with the nation’s $37 trillion debt, could build momentum to eliminate the most egregious handouts.
Continuing down the road of the vaunted clean-energy transition is not an option. The nation’s soaring demand for electricity, fueled by the proliferation of data centers driven by artificial intelligence, will never be met by intermittent wind and solar power, no matter how lavish the subsidies. If the electric grid is to be stabilized and upgraded to meet the rising demand for energy, only coal, natural gas and nuclear power can deliver the goods.
For a glimpse of what can happen when drastic changes are not made, look at Germany. The country’s once-mighty automotive industry is reeling from the consequences of its own green misadventure. Germany is blanketed in wind turbines and solar panels, which have contributed to skyrocketing electricity prices.
In late October, Volkswagen, facing stiff competition from Chinese EVs, announced it was closing as many as three plants in Germany, laying off 10,000 workers and imposing 10% pay cuts on its workforce.
Upon taking office, the Biden administration proclaimed an “all of government” effort to combat the “climate crisis.”
Mr. Trump will have to do much of the same to dismantle the structure of cronyism that has been put in place to support green energy. Designated EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin can roll back his agency’s de facto EV mandate; new Interior Secretary Doug Burgum can open more federal land and offshore areas to oil and gas drilling. And at the DOE, Mr. Wright can help make way for more oil and gas pipelines.
These and other steps can reestablish Mr. Trump’s vision of American energy dominance.
• Bonner Russell Cohen is a senior policy analyst with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.