Wind turbines in the Columbia River Gorge. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Upon being sworn in as president. Donald Trump immediately declared an energy emergency. The proclamation, issued on January 20th, states that “The energy and critical minerals (“energy”) identification, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, and generation capacity of the United States are all far too inadequate to meet our Nation’s needs.”

There was a requisite promise to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ that blatantly harkened back to a slogan from the 2008 presidential campaign. By no means was it the first time Trump reached for the past on energy. His 2016 campaign featured a loud promise to restore coal and coal-mining jobs. Of course, he did no such thing. Coal production in the U.S. continued to decline throughout his first term. During the pandemic in 2020 coal’s share of generation fell below 20 percent for the first time. Last year, solar panels and wind turbines produced more electricity in the U.S. than coal power plants for the first time. Coal production has been under 600 million short tons for years and won’t be increasing anytime soon.

The purported justification for the emergency, inadequate energy supply, is off kilter in that the Trump Administration is simultaneously seeking to stop offshore wind projects. The Biden administration had approved eleven offshore winds projects worth about 19 gigawatts of energy.

As far as oil and natural gas are concerned, the U.S. is already produces more than any other country on Earth. The........

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