When President Donald Trump traveled to Houston earlier this month to announce two executive orders that will promote America’s energy dominance, he highlighted his administration’s greatest untold accomplishment. While Russia and the border may dominate headlines, the President’s pro-energy agenda has made history behind the scenes.
President Trump has eliminated costly regulations, approved the Keystone XL pipeline and opened up Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, actions that are contributing to our growing energy boom. He’s helping finally free our country from the burden of foreign oil.
The president’s new executive orders will speed up energy projects by making it “harder for states to block the construction of oil and gas pipelines,” and his intervention comes in response to efforts from states such as New York that have wrongly stifled pipeline construction, citing false environmental concerns. Trump’s orders will help bring American energy to market and continue the energy boom creating hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country.
The numbers bear out just how important this boom has been. A recent report from the Department of Energy found that the U.S. is on track to become energy independent by 2020. Oil production is “already at an all-time high,” and under Trump, the U.S. has become a net exporter of natural gas.
The dream of a robust, domestic energy economy used to be bipartisan. Even Barack Obama advocated for it. Now, Trump is finally making it a reality.
His timing is also impeccable. It comes just as his potential 2020 opponents are taking the exact opposite approach.
In fact, Democrats running for their party’s presidential nomination are almost universally doing everything possible to ally themselves to the extreme environmental left. It’s no surprise that senators from deep-blue states such as Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Bernie Sanders of Vermont would endorse ridiculous proposals such as the “Green New Deal.”
But what is surprising is that a Texan, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, is joining them.
Texans don’t normally oppose energy. The energy industry contributes $172 billion to the Texas economy. In his congressional career and his Senate race, O’Rourke presented himself as a moderate on energy.
O’Rourke said kind words about fracking in his 2018 run. He said that it should be done “in a responsible, safe way.” In 2016, he voted against a measure that would have prohibited studying offshore drilling in parts of the Gulf of Mexico. In 2015, he joined Republicans and voted to lift the U.S. oil export ban.
O’Rourke was correct before he started running for president. Today, he could not be more wrong. Fracking is being done safely across the nation, powering economic booms in states like New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. It was wise to vote against a bill that would prohibit merely studying and assessing offshore drilling — why shouldn’t we investigate to see what’s there? Allowing U.S. companies to freely sell oil abroad is a no-brainer.
Now, O’Rourke is singing a different tune. Just this week he repudiated his 2016 vote for studying offshore drilling. He now says he is “supportive of the concept” of the “Green New Deal” that would decimate the energy industry, and that he has not seen a “better” plan. He’s even gone so far as to praise socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., saying “Those who have helped to champion and to write the Green New Deal are absolutely right on the money.”
This is John Kerry-level flip flopping.
Some herald O’Rourke as the savior of the Democratic party, as someone who could flip Texas blue and oust President Trump from office. But running as a ‘moderate’ in a good year for Democrats, O’Rourke couldn’t win Texas.
Now that he’s repudiating his past reasonable stances on energy, distancing himself from those powering Texas’ economic miracle, there is no chance of O’Rourke flipping Texas. And with their support of the “Green New Deal,” you can say the same for pretty much every other 2020 Democrat.
President Donald Trump’s decision to highlight energy as he ramps up his 2020 bid is smart. It highlights how he’s fulfilling a longtime bipartisan promise, delivering jobs and economic growth for our country. Talking about energy could be his 2020 ace in the hole.
Daniel Turner is the executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. Follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF
