Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has pledged to expand domestic oil production in the United States and to lift some regulations to make that happen, he told Bloomberg Businessweek in an exclusive interview published Wednesday.
The interview with the former US president took place at Mar-a-Lago in late June, two days before the first presidential debate and two weeks before this weekend’s attempted assassination of Trump.
In a wide-ranging interview covering a host of issues at home and abroad, Trump said energy costs need to come down and that America has the energy resources to make it happen.
“We have more liquid gold than anybody,” Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek.
“We need low-cost energy. The advantage we have over almost every other country, including the big countries, is that we have more energy than any other country. We have more real energy, more energy that works,” said the former president, who is seeking reelection.
“Wind doesn’t work. It’s too expensive,” Trump said, arguing that solar and wind farms are not very environmentally friendly and not very good at providing energy at low cost.
Trump did not offer many details about domestic energy issues, but made it clear that he intends to continue supporting American oil and gas production if elected president.
If Trump wins in November, he will likely try to reverse or at least dismantle many of President Biden’s energy and climate policies, including the methane restrictions, the moratorium on new LNG export permits, the EV mandate, federal oil and gas leasing, and even parts of the Inflation Control Act.
But dismantling the IRA would first require a Republican-controlled Congress in both the House and Senate, and even then, analysts say, it may be difficult to scale back or eliminate the IRA’s incentives because they primarily benefit projects and jobs in Republican states.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio, has also suggested a second Trump administration would favor fossil fuels at the expense of clean energy.
By Tsvetana Paraskova, Oilprice.com
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