” … although Trump was not a libertarian, was his philosophy in energy, environment, and regulation reasonably free market? Were the President’s motivations laudatory? Consumer-, entrepreneur-, and taxpayer-driven? I believe they were, outside of foreign trade policy with certain countries.”

I recently had this exchange with a ideological and personal friend, Richard Ebeling, BB&T Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Free Enterprise Leadership at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, about the civil war within the libertarian movement in regard to the Donald Trump presidency. Always there, the divide boiled over last week with Trump’s last stand. I was part of it.

After reviewing our exchange, I revisited many Trump-related posts here at MasterResource regarding energy, climate, and the environment. (Wednesday’s post will list approximately 30.) The question is: although Trump was not a libertarian, was his philosophy in this area reasonably free market, outside of foreign trade policy with certain countries?…

“[Joe] Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale and natural gas, laying waste to the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico….”

A full transcript of President Trump’s August 28, 2020, acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, nearly 6,000 words, is available here. His energy-related excerpts follow:

Days after taking office, we shocked the Washington establishment and withdrew from the last administration’s job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership. I then immediately approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, ended the unfair and very costly Paris climate accord and secured, for the first time, American energy independence.

Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale and natural gas, laying waste to the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico — destroying those states, absolutely destroying those states, and others.…

“Is Trump right about the more-working-class-view that water efficient plumbing fixtures and appliances are unnecessary and costly?”

“If a household were to conserve 25 percent of its indoor water it would amount to 7/100ths (0.07) of one-acre-foot of total system water in a year; a mere drop in the bucket.”

At a December 6, 2019 White House meeting with the Small Business Roundtable, Donald Trump made the following remarks about “opening up” national standards for water efficient bathroom fixtures and appliances:

We’re using common sense.  We have a situation where we’re looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms where you turn the faucet on — in areas where there’s tremendous amounts of water, where the water rushes out to sea because you could never handle it — and you don’t get any water. 

“… the President of the United States has proven quite a match for the anti-energy, anti-industrial, anti-sovereignty climate crusade.”

“Climate change? Nary a mention. Maybe this was one of the highlights of the 2020 State of the Nation.”

MasterResource has chronicled the energy-related speeches of Donald Trump on the campaign trail and as president.

Promises made, promises kept.

While his tariff policies have increased input costs for energy infrastructure (steel for pipelines, in particular), and split-the-baby biofuel subsidies stubbornly continue (what politician other than Ted Cruz has been able to say no?), there are many bright spots for the nation with the liberation of oil and gas exploration and production, pipeline projects, and other infrastructure needs.

And in the greatest pro-liberty energy campaign of all-time, President Trump has said YES to regulatory reform, NO to the anti-energy agenda of the Obama Administration, and HECK NO to global governance in the name of addressing the so-called climate change.…