After an uneven start, President-elect Donald Trump is hitting his stride on Cabinet nominations, especially when it comes to energy. He has assembled a strong roster of competent nominees who, once confirmed, will be in an excellent position to deliver on his promise to lower energy prices and ensure consistent supplies.
As secretary of the Interior, Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) will be empowered to undo much of the economic damage caused by his predecessor, Deb Haaland. Where Haaland closed off much of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, slowed offshore oil and gas lease auctions to a crawl, and banned mining on public lands holding vast deposits of rare Earth minerals, Burgum can unleash the power of the private sector to find, extract, and process the United States’s vast energy wealth to the benefit of consumers.
No longer will voters be stuck with an Interior secretary who can offer only a blank stare when asked where domestic battery manufacturers are supposed to get the lithium, copper, and cobalt they need after the government has banned mining from the lands where those minerals are in the ground. Democrats talk superficially of a transition to renewable energy, but they have proven themselves completely detached from the reality of the natural resources needed to build that future. As governor of the nation’s third-largest oil-producing state, Burgum does not suffer from any such delusions. He was a success in private business before moving into the government, and he is a very capable choice.
Chris Wright, Energy secretary nominee, has perhaps the perfect resume for the job. As chief executive officer of a fracking contractor, Wright knows both what the private sector needs to succeed in the energy industry and what barriers the government puts in its path. His management experience will prove invaluable as he takes over supervision of the nation’s 17 national laboratories and the Energy Department’s half-a-trillion-dollar loan program. Congress may want to claw back much of the loans Democrats stuffed into the Inflation Reduction Act, which would take legislation, but Wright is the ideal candidate to bring the existing spigot to a halt. Like Burgam, he will bring competence and expertise to jobs that require those qualities.
Wright will also have the opportunity to preside over a nuclear renaissance as tech companies scramble to meet the energy demands of the artificial intelligence revolution. By removing regulatory barriers to the private storage, handling, and recycling of nuclear fuel, Wright is in a position to leave a lasting legacy in both the nuclear and tech sectors.
Finally, former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin’s stellar voting record in Congress proves he is an ideal choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, where he will be very busy. President Joe Biden repeatedly abused the powers given to the EPA by the Clean Air Act to fight climate change when that is not what Congress had in mind when the legislation was enacted. First on Zeldin’s list should be rescinding Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, a regulation so draconian that the auto workers’ unions already forced Biden to rewrite it once. Zeldin should go a step further and end it entirely. The same goes for Biden’s power plant rules that would force hundreds of gigawatts off the grid by closing coal and gas power plants before cleaner alternatives can be brought online.
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Delivering on his promise to end inflation and lower prices will not be easy for Trump. Whatever the overall benefits, cutting government spending is always painful for someone. However, creating a common sense framework to lower energy costs and give energy businesses a stable basis for investment and planning is the closest thing to 20-20 foresight in public policy.
Biden’s energy development bans, EV mandates, and power plant closures were never going to lower global temperatures by even a fraction of a degree. However, they were harming consumers through higher prices and harming businesses, not just by high prices but by a constant sense of uncertainty over what ludicrous policy prank the feds would pull next. By giving up on the Democratic Party’s “Green New Fantasy,” Trump can deliver lower costs on everything the energy sector touches, which includes not just gas for your car or to heat your home but transportation costs for literally everything consumers buy.