Op-Ed: Daniel Turner: A Brett Guthrie-led Energy and Commerce Committee can reenergize America
Our energy sector is in a ditch, and not by accident. Four years of the Biden-Harris administration’s obsession with the climate agenda landed this great industry there.
As Rep. Brett Guthrie (R., Ky.) prepares to take the reins of the House’s Committee on Energy and Commerce, he faces a monumental task cleaning up the mess of the last four years. Guthrie is not alone in this endeavor. President Donald Trump’s nominations to lead the big-three cabinet agencies (Energy, Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency) have their hands full implementing a regulatory structure that will lead to a brighter future for America’s energy industry.
Our energy sector is in a ditch, and not by accident. Four years of the Biden-Harris administration’s obsession with the climate agenda landed this great industry there.
Ignore the cynics screaming that “oil production is at record high.” Even Vice President Kamala Harris tried this tack on the campaign trail. Yet despite high volume, the price has not fallen below $60 in nearly four years.
Barrels per day is just one metric. The others — price per barrel, rig count, leases, financing and investment — inform and offset the production numbers. And not the cool Al Gore “carbon offset.” No, this is the “OPEC calls the shots, Russia and Iran are wealthier, Americans are paying record high prices for goods and services” kind of offset.
The attacks on energy are countless: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an ostensibly “independent” agency, did the Biden administration’s bidding under Chairman Gary Gensler by punishing lending to the energy industry. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), also supposedly “independent” under Chairman Richard Glick (who met almost weekly with the White House, an action that helped cost him renomination to the post) prioritized the climate agenda in their approval of pipeline, ports, and other energy infrastructure. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland used “indigenous knowledge” in determining federal land leases. No business can operate under such arcane and arbitrary conditions, let alone the energy industry which undergirds our entire economy and national security.
Soon-to-be-Chairman Guthrie will have a lot on his plate as an all-of-government solution is needed to address the all-of-government problems imposed by the punitive regulations of the heavy-handed Biden-Harris administration.
Just consider this: in technically fewer than four years, the Biden-Harris administration already imposed more regulations than the entire eight years of the Obama administration, upwards of 96,000. For comparison, it took some California counties weeks to accurately count as many ballots. It is quite literally impossible to calculate the amount of time needed to read, process, and comply with so many regulations. No industry can operate in such impossible conditions.
Fortunately, as a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Guthrie has a compelling record, making his elevation to chair promising. He voted against the Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandates, a clear sign of support for free markets. In a letter to outgoing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, he flagged the urgent need for increased electricity production to maintain America’s edge in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) competition with communist China.
In an op-ed on these pages, he lambasted the false flag operation of “climate justice” as a solution in search of a problem wasting taxpayer dollars. These examples alone are reason to have high hopes that the committee, in conjunction with the incoming Trump administration, is poised to restore our energy dominance.
The incoming committee chair and his staff would be wise to zero in on the foreign funding to undermine American energy. Just this week alone, there have been multiple media accounts on this dastardly effort. Just look at the Swiss billionaire who funds “green groups” to rabble rouse in the climate space and communist Chinese funding of American universities to promote climate change intellectualism.
These revelations highlight something we have known for decades, and a reason why I started my own organization, Power The Future, to spotlight these bad actors: it is not about climate, it is not about the planet. The entire green movement is about green money.
Foreign powers benefit from climate activism. Foreign companies — whether they make solar panels in China or offshore wind turbines in Scandinavia or mine rare elements in sub-Saharan Africa or produce oil in Iran or natural gas in Russia — benefit tremendously when America “goes green.” We would treat foreign entities as hostile if this were military encroachment or cyber activism yet commit the same level of aggression disguised as “climate change awareness” and there is no punishment.
Our energy industry is in a ditch. We didn’t get here by accident or overnight. Before we can be energy dominant, lower prices and stabilize our economy, we need to get ourselves out of the ditch with an all-of-government approach, and I look forward to working with soon-to-be Chairman Guthrie to make it happen.
Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. Contact him at daniel@powerthefuture.com and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF.