Since the dawn of the industrial age, nations have required an ample supply of affordable and dependable energy in order to thrive in the modern world. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many wars were fought over access to vast oil, coal, and natural gas deposits.
Unlike many European powers of the recent past, the United States has been blessed with an abundance of coal, oil, and natural gas deposits. During World War II, when the United States was dubbed the arsenal of democracy, American industry produced prodigious amounts of planes, tanks, weapons, and other war materiel thanks to the massive amount of coal, oil, and natural gas in places like Texas and West Virginia.
Most Americans have probably never heard of the Big Inch or Little Big Inch pipelines. Both were built during the Second World War to bring Texas crude oil to the Northeast for refining because it was too risky to transport the oil by ship up the East Coast due to the threat of German U-boats. Without these pipelines and the enormous amount of oil pumped during the war, perhaps the United States would not have been able to tip the scales in favor of the Allies.
In the post-World War II era, access to energy has been a key focus of U.S. foreign policy. In the 1960s, when the Middle East began flexing its energy muscle and formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the United States took notice.
In the 1970s, when OPEC began behaving like a cartel and instituted embargos and engaged in price manipulation, Americans paid a heavy price as they struggled through energy rationing. Around this time, so-called experts began fearmongering that the United States would soon run out of oil.
Interestingly, this is also when the same experts were ringing the alarm bells about global cooling and an imminent ice age, which they conveniently changed to global warming a few decades later, before finally settling on the all-encompassing term: climate change.
Even President Carter bought into the peak oil scaremongering; Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House and implored Americans to do the same. He also recommended turning the thermostat down and wearing a sweater during the cold winter months.
In 1980, Americans rejected the Carter Malaise and elected Ronald Reagan, who campaigned on eliminating energy price controls and increasing U.S. energy production. Reagan’s free-market approach to the energy sector worked; prices came down and oil production went up.
In the 1990s, U.S. oil production began a steady slide that continued into the new millennium. Of course, this also coincided with the sudden rise of the climate alarmism narrative, which called for an end to fossil fuel production.
Throughout the Bush and Obama years, the climate alarmists made great inroads as the U.S. government officially adopted the policy that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels pose an existential threat to humanity.
While there is much room for debate on whether CO2 emissions actually harm the planet, that did not stop Bush and Obama from using massive subsidies to goose the so-called green energy transition while enlisting the United States in global agreements to curb CO2 emissions.
Then, something very unexpected happened; Donald Trump defeated the heir apparent, Hillary Clinton, and took a decidedly different approach to U.S. energy policy. President Trump ramped up U.S. energy production, pulled out of the Paris Accords, and eliminated frivolous regulations.
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s American energy dominance plan produced abundant and affordable energy for the American people. The price of gasoline plummeted, as did the cost of electricity. Moreover, under Trump, the United States became a net exporter of oil for the first time in 75 years.
Tragically, President Biden has gone in the complete opposite direction, which has cost the average U.S. household more than $2,500 in direct energy costs. Meanwhile, Biden has put America back into the Paris Agreement, subsidized EVs, and spent tens of billions of taxpayer dollars on absurd climate change programs.
However, this is all about to change very soon. In a few weeks, President-elect Donald Trump will triumphantly return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Within days, Trump will issue executive orders undoing some of the worst elements of Biden’s anti-fossil fuel agenda. More importantly, Trump’s pick for energy secretary, Chris Wright, is a climate realist who understands that oil, coal, and natural gas are the foundation of the U.S. energy portfolio.
On the global front, Trump’s plan to export liquefied natural gas to our European allies will be a further boon to the West while undermining Russia’s ability to continue waging war in Ukraine.
With Trump back in the White House and climate realism replacing climate alarmism, Americans should have high hopes for the years ahead.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
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