Trump Pitches Energy Policy: Good for Oil and Coal, Bad for Environment

A semisubmersible drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit: Statoil

By Valerie Volcovici and Emily Stephenson

BISMARCK, N.D., May 26 (Reuters) – Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, promised on Thursday to roll back some of America’s most ambitious environmental policies if elected, actions that he said would revive the ailing U.S. oil and coal industries and bolster national security.

Trump said he would pull the United States out of the U.N. global climate accord, approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada and rescind measures by President Barack Obama to cut U.S. emissions and expand protections for U.S. waterways.

“Any regulation that’s outdated, unnecessary, bad for workers or contrary to the national interest will be scrapped and scrapped completely,” Trump said at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, the capital of oil-rich North Dakota. It was Trump’s first speech detailing the energy policies he would advance from the White House.

“We’re going to do all this while taking proper regard for rational environmental concerns,” he said.

The comments painted a stark contrast between the New York billionaire and his Democratic rivals for the White House, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, who advocate a sharp turn away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy technologies to combat climate change.

The comments also drew quick criticism from environmental advocates, who called his proposals “frightening.”

“Trump’s energy policies would accelerate climate change, protect corporate polluters who profit from poisoning our air and water, and block the transition to clean energy that is necessary to strengthen our economy and protect our climate and health,” said Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmental activist.

But industry executives cheered the stance.

“It’s simple. If Trump wins, oil field workers will be happy. If Clinton wins, oil workers will be unhappy,” said Derrick Alexander, an operations manager at oilfield services firm Integrated Productions Services.

Trump hit Clinton hard in his speech, saying the former secretary of state would be more aggressive than Obama on regulations. He repeated several times Clinton’s March comments that her policies would put coal miners out of work.

“Hillary Clinton’s agenda is job destruction,” Trump said.

CANCEL PARIS

Trump said slashing regulation would help the United States achieve energy independence and reduce America’s reliance on Middle Eastern producers. “Imagine a world in which oil cartels will no longer use energy as a weapon,” he said.

The United States currently produces about 55 percent of the oil it uses, with another quarter of the total coming from Canada and Mexico, and less than 20 percent coming from OPEC, according to U.S. Energy Department statistics.

Trump’s advisers, including U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, have said they suggested Trump examine the role of OPEC in the global oil price slump since 2014, which has contributed to the demise of a handful of smaller U.S. oil companies. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members have declined to cut production to support prices.

Until Thursday, Trump had been short on details of his energy policy. He has said he believes global warming is a hoax, that his administration would revive the U.S. coal industry, and that he supports hydraulic fracturing – an environmentally controversial drilling technique that has triggered a boom in U.S. production.

Earlier this month, he told Reuters in an interview that he would renegotiate “at a minimum” the U.N. global climate accord agreed by 195 countries in Paris last December, saying he viewed the deal as bad for U.S. business.

He took that a step further in North Dakota. “We’re going to cancel the Paris climate agreement,” he told the crowd of roughly 7,700 in Bismarck.

He also promised he would invite Canadian pipeline company TransCanada to reapply to build the Keystone XL pipeline into the United States, reversing a decision by Obama to block the project over environmental concerns.

“I want it built, but I want a piece of the profits,” Trump said. “That’s how we’re going to make our country rich again.”

Trump’s pledge briefly sent TransCanada’s shares up by 27 Canadian cents to C$54.11 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but the stock quickly leveled back off, closing up 2 Canadian cents at C$53.86.

In response to the presumptive Republican nominee’s promise he would seek more profits from the pipeline, TransCanada spokesman James Millar noted the build would support 40,000 construction jobs, major contracts for U.S. suppliers and provide tens of millions in taxes for state coffers.

“The pipeline will benefit American workers longer term as the companies they work for have signed contracts to ship and refine oil through Keystone XL,” Millar added in an email. (Additional reporting by Julie Gordon in Vancouver; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.