Bloomberg Government regularly publishes insights, opinions and best practices from our community of senior leaders and decision-makers. This column is written by Heather Zichal, former Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, and one of the architects of Obama’s National Climate Action Plan. She is supporting Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump recently unveiled his allegedly bold and substantive new energy policy, arguing that President Obama’s “regulations . . . shut down hundreds of coal-fired power plants and block the construction of new ones.” He ever so humbly summed up his case by asking, “How stupid is that?”
There’s nothing bold or new about unimaginatively following a script so tired that much of Big Oil and Dirty Coal long ago abandoned it. But Trump’s proposal did break some new ground: If it became U.S. policy, it would lead to more, not less, financial troubles for the already struggling electric utilities and the oil and gas industries.
Why?
Ironically, for someone never shy about reminding America that he’s a “very successful businessman,” Trump isn’t listening to those who live and breathe the energy industry. Electric utility executives have made a concerted business decision to move away from coal in favor of natural gas and renewable energy because of lower prices and better environmental performance. There is not a single new coal plant proposed for construction in the U.S. today. The market, in this case, has spoken. Also, gutting environmental protections might make oil producers’ lives easier, but production just isn’t going to recover until the price jumps substantially. And there’s nothing in Trump’s plan to accomplish that — for which American drivers can be thankful.
For Trump to restore coal jobs, he would have to figure out a way to curb production of its chief competitor: natural gas. But that would eliminate gas-industry jobs and drive up electricity bills for consumers. How stupid is that?
Trump wrote in “The Art of the Deal” that “I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present.” Well, the present is screaming out loud and clear. The big opportunity isn’t in fossil fuels. Homegrown, 21st century clean energy is actually producing more jobs than the oil and gas sector today. The number of jobs in the solar business grew 12 times faster than overall job creation in the United States. More than 769,000 people were employed in renewable energy in the U.S. in 2015, dwarfing the 187,000 employed in the oil and gas sector and the 68,000 in coal mining. And, if Mr. Trump would like to make better inroads with women, renewable energy might be a good place to start: 35% of renewable energy sector jobs were held by women, compared to 20-25% in the wider energy sector.
And there’s another inconvenient truth for Trump. While it’s true that industry has had to comply with new rules under Obama, the U.S. is extracting oil and gas at near record levels. In 2015, natural gas production hit an all-time high, and the U.S. is as close to energy independent as it has been in half a century. So exactly what’s the problem Trump is trying to solve by gutting regulations?
Trump has shown himself to be very good at pandering. But he’s peddling an energy policy that most closely resembles his bankrupt Trump Steaks: packaging, not protein. How stupid is that?
The opinions presented in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Bloomberg Government or Bloomberg LP.