Republicans involved in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign explained on Thursday (29 August) that Trump would scrap a considerable amount of President Biden’s clean energy initiatives if elected.
Trump plans to not only axe the Biden administration’s regulations on power plants and transportation emissions, but also speed up approvals on new power plants to help the US meet its rising electricity demands, according to the campaign.
David Bernhardt, Trump’s former Interior Department Secretary, said to reporters in a call organised by the Republican candidate’s campaign that Trump will “greenlight the construction of hundreds of new power plants”, without specifying how the plants will be fuelled, Reuters reported.
“[The former president] will immediately stop all Biden-Harris policies that distort energy markets, limit consumer choice and drive up the costs on consumers on day one,” he said.
Bernhardt added that Trump would remove the US from the Paris Climate Agreement.
The remarks are in line with Trump’s stance on energy – increasing industrial and fossil fuel projects and cutting regulations – during his presidency.
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By GlobalDataIn response to Bernhardt’s claims, Kamala Harris’s spokesperson James Singer said that Trump wants to sell out the US’ energy future to Big Oil.
He said: “American energy of all kinds has hit record production levels [under the Biden-Harris Administration], resulting in hundreds of thousands of new jobs for American workers because of her leadership.”
However, during the Biden Administration, oil and gas production hit record highs despite the Democrat’s efforts to transition to cleaner energy. According to Power Technology’s parent company, GlobalData, electricity generated from fossil fuels in the US totalled 17.37TW in 2023.
In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act that provided clean energy projects billions of dollars of subsides. No Republican voted for the legislation, and some have since campaigned to repeal parts of the bill that limit the fossil fuel industry.
Trump’s campaign also pledged to “modernise” the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to speed up approvals and commissioning of new nuclear power plants. Bernhardt explained: “There has been legislation to address some of these issues, but there is a long way to go.”
The Biden Administration passed legislation in July to reform the commission to help speed approvals, encourage new projects, restart shuttered plants and delay scheduled nuclear reactor retirements.
