Trump II vs. Biden: Energy Policy Reversal

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 5, 2026

“The narrative of the Progressive Left on energy and climate has become strained as a result of Trump’s energy/climate policy reversal. Hundreds if not thousands of government-enabled energy interventionists are out of action or seeking other employment. A deregulating dynamic has been created, in other words.”

In “Trump’s Energy Triumph,” (March 13, 2026), Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal wrote:

The biggest threat to this plan was always the Biden administration, which halted liquefied natural-gas exports, shuttered Alaskan and Gulf drilling, snubbed Middle East partners, pressed investors to abandon fossil-fuel projects, and dispatched John Kerry to kill energy deals. All in the name of climate change.

She continued:

These would also be the folks who sold off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to win an election. Want to send real fear through energy markets? Two words: Jennifer Granholm, the energy secretary who dedicated four years to ensuring your washing machine used fewer BTUs.

Biden’s Termite 250

The Institute for Energy Research (IER) published a major stocktaking of the Biden energy record, “250 Ways the Biden-Harris Administration, and their Allies, Have Made it Harder to Produce Oil & Gas” (August 20, 2024)

It began on Day One (January 20, 2021), with John Podesta orchestrating and Kamala Harris along for the (California) ride. From the report:

1. Besides canceling the Keystone XL pipeline,
2. President Biden restricted domestic production by issuing a moratorium on all oil and natural gas leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
3. He also restored and expanded the use of the government-created social-cost-of-carbon metric to artificially increase the regulatory costs of energy production of fossil fuels when performing analyses, as well as artificially increase the so-called “benefits” of decreasing production.
4. Biden continued to revoke Trump administration executive orders, including those related to the Waters of the United States rule and the Antiquities Act. The Trump-era actions decreased regulations on Federal land and expanded the ability to produce energy domestically.

And ended on August 18/19, 2024, with:

249. The DNC releases their 2024 platform that places the non-existent climate crisis front-and-center in Harris’s policy agenda.
250. Vice President Harris was in Charlotte, North Carolina, to announce the recipients of $20 billion in “green bank” grants, marking the largest federal investment ever for community-based climate projects. The grants, awarded to eight nonprofit lending groups, will allocate capital by political fiat, diverting resources away from affordable and reliable energy.
251. Democratic legislators and state attorneys general are pressuring a federal court to uphold the Biden administration’s controversial climate risk reporting rule, claiming it will deliver essential information to investors. In briefs submitted last week to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, these officials, alongside environmental groups, argued that the disclosure mandate from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will safeguard retirees and others dependent on investment income. The actual goal of the SEC reporting rule is to make it easier for environmental groups and regulators to target businesses based on their carbon emissions.

Trump II Actions

Compare this to Trump II in the first 14 months of his term, complied by IER–“300 Actions the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans Have Taken to Unleash Our Energy Potential” (February 24, 2026). Day One, January 20, 2025, had 16 actions:

1. President Donald J. Trump … sign[ed] some 200 executive orders, many redirecting federal policies on energy, such as: Executive order declaring a national energy emergency.
2. Executive order revoking and rescinding the U.S. International Climate Finance Plan.
3. Executive order pausing government agencies and departments from issuing new rules until a department head approves.
4. Executive order reviewing agency activities that burden the production of U.S. energy.
5. Executive order allowing drilling and reversing restrictions placed by the Federal Government on Alaskan energy production.
6. Executive order resuming the processing of export permit applications for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects.
7. An offshore wind moratorium and a 60-day stop of new wind and solar permits on federal lands.
8. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and revoking any financial commitments under the UNFCCC.
9. Rescinded previous executive actions, including: Executive Order 13990 of January 20, 2021 (Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis).
10. Executive Order 14013 of February 4, 2021 (Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs To Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration).
11. Executive Order 14027 of May 7, 2021 (Establishment of the Climate Change Support Office).
12. Executive Order 14057 of December 8, 2021 (Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability).
13. Executive Order 14082 of September 12, 2022 (Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022).
14. The Presidential Memorandum of March 13, 2023 (Withdrawal of Certain Areas off the United States Arctic Coast of the Outer Continental Shelf from Oil or Gas Leasing).
15. The Presidential Memorandum of January 3, 2025 (Designation of Officials of the Council on Environmental Quality to Act as Chairman).
16. The Presidential Memorandum of January 6, 2025 (Withdrawal of Certain Areas of the United States Outer Continental Shelf from Oil or Natural Gas Leasing).

And on February 19, 2026, came actions 299 and 300:

299. The Bureau of Land Management announced an oil and gas lease sale scheduled for April 28, 2026, to offer 23 oil and gas parcels totaling 8,993 acres in North Dakota and South Dakota.
300. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted unanimously to streamline its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review for water power actions that have minimal or no impacts to the environment, to provide greater efficiency and regulatory certainty to regulated industries.

Conclusion

Political economists are used to describing government intervention expanding from its own shortcomings. Intervention — Problem — More intervention — More problems — More intervention. But President Trump has introduced the opposite dynamic to yesterday’s intervention. Inherited government actions against fossil fuels have been repealed, and lost subsidies have caused the crony wind, solar, and battery/EV industries to contract.

The narrative of the Progressive Left on energy and climate has become strained as a result of Trump’s energy/climate policy reversal. Hundreds if not thousands of government-enabled energy interventionists are out of action or seeking other employment. A deregulating dynamic has been created, in other words.