Trump calls on Biden administration to boost domestic oil production

03/03/2022 / By Nolan Barton

Former President Donald Trump has called on the Biden administration to boost oil production in the United States.

“We are so foolish,” Trump said during a recent phone interview with Fox Business Network‘s Maria Bartiromo. “The whole thing with the climate is just out of control. Unless everybody is going to do it, [this] makes us noncompetitive. And everybody has to do it. That includes China and Russia and India and many other countries.”

Pressed by Bartiromo to comment on the oil price surge, Trump said: “Well, they’re going unlimited right now. You can’t even project. It could go anything.”

Trump agreed with the “Mornings with Maria” host when asked if reaching $200 per barrel is a possibility.

“Oh yeah,” Trump said. “I mean, why not? You won’t be able to get it. And OPEC [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries] loves it. They’re making a fortune. Why would they do anything? They have him over a barrel. The only thing he can do is just say sorry about it with climate hoax. Sorry about it. Look, this climate situation is killing our country.”

Trump pinned the blame squarely on the current administration for “stupidly” reversing course on his energy policy.

One of the first moves by President Joe Biden following his inauguration on Jan. 20 last year was to sign an executive order to rejoin the Paris climate agreement. The accord, which was signed 2015, tasks signatory countries with putting forward plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Biden proceeded to axe the Keystone XL oil pipeline project and ban fracking within his first week at the office.

Biden more interested in reversing everything Trump did

That’s why former United Nations (UN) Ambassador Nikki Haley called Biden’s first seven days as president “a good first week for Russia.”

“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin has to be pretty ecstatic right now,” Haley told Fox News at the time. “One of the things that bothered him the most was how energy independent we had become.”

Haley was alluding to Trump’s time as president during which the U.S. became the world’s top oil producer and maintained its position as the top global producer of natural gas. In 2019, the country became a net exporter of petroleum (crude oil and refined) products for the first time since 1949.

The former UN ambassador said Biden is “more interested in reversing everything President Trump did” rather than looking forward.

For context, Trump backed out of the accord and revived the pipeline project after it hit a snag under former President Barack Obama. (Related: Trump just SAVED America from the disastrous Paris Climate Treaty fraud.)

Paris accord could prove costly for US economy

Nicolas Loris, deputy director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, said the Paris climate agreement is flawed economically and environmentally from the beginning.

“It will be very costly for American families and businesses because 80 percent of our energy needs are met [through] carbon-emitting conventional fuels,” Loris told the Epoch Times last year.

Poor families are going to be hit hard because they spend the highest percentage of their budget on energy costs. But consumers, in general, will shoulder much of the burden because businesses will pass the additional expenses on them if the cost of energy is increased.

An analysis by The Heartland Institute shows that the U.S. would see a significant decrease in the production of iron, steel, natural gas in coal by 2030 if the country continues to be a part of the accord. By 2040, the U.S. would see a loss of $3 trillion worth of gross domestic product and 6.5 million jobs in the industrial sector.

Cancellation of Keystone project not going to reduce emissions

Meanwhile, the cancellation of Keystone XL pipeline permit has led to the loss of thousands of jobs. The pipeline was meant to transport Canadian crude oil to the United States without a need for trucks and freight trains.

Neal Crabtree, a welding foreman who began working on pipeline construction as an apprentice in 1997, was among the first to be laid off following the order. He and his team were in Nebraska working on a pump station for Keystone XL when the cross-border permits for the pipeline were canceled. (Related: 21 states sue Biden over cancellation of Keystone XL pipeline permit.)

“This is not a time to be making political statements. We need to be finding ways to put more Americans back to work, not the other way around,” Crabtree told Fox News.

“Just like the rest of the country, the pandemic hurt us bad. We had a lot of projects canceled. We’ve got guys that haven’t worked in months, and in some cases years, and to have a project of this magnitude canceled, it’s going to hurt a lot of people, a lot of families, a lot of communities.”

Elmira Aliakbari, associate director of natural resource studies at the Fraser Institute, said the cancellation of Keystone XL pipeline permit will do virtually nothing to reduce emissions.

“This cancellation will do little or nothing for the environment because it doesn’t lessen U.S. oil dependency. It is likely that U.S. refineries in the Gulf Coast will increase their reliance on other countries such as Venezuela and Russia for oil imports,” she explained.