Donald Trump Deludes North Dakota Oil Crowd, Threatens Foreign Policy Chaos
By Cory Allen Heidelberger on 2016-05-27
Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump gave a feel-tough speech to over 7,000 people at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck yesterday.
True to form, Trump played to angst about falling energy prices and the concomitant economic and public budget upheaval in North Dakota by scapegoating President Barack Obama:
Trump vowed to reverse the energy policy of President Barack Obama’s administration, which he said has been devastating to industry and inflicted pain on states such as North Dakota that rely heavily on the energy sector.
“If President Obama wanted to weaken America, he couldn’t have done a better job,” Trump said.
Among the policies he’d push to undo is the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions rules targeting coal-fired power plants. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year voted 5-4 to halt implementation of the rules governing new and existing power plants for now.
Trump, of course, is ignoring the fact that North Dakota’s oil boom is busting at the moment due to economic and political factors far exceeding any regulatory schemes.
“Bakken Forward”—sounds like an oxymoron Donald Trump would come up with. (Screen cap from ABC News, Bismarck, ND, 2016.05.26).
TRUMP: President Obama has aggressively blocked the production of oil & natural gas:
He’s taken a huge percentage of the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve off the table. Oil and natural gas production on federal lands is down 10%. 87% of available land in the Outer Continental Shelf has been put off limits. Atlantic Lease sales were closed down too – despite the fact that they would create 280,000 jobs and $23.5 billion in economic activity.
IR: Leases were temporarily halted during the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling disaster, and then started right back up. In fact, leases for offshore drilling have been expanded under Obama, not reduced.
TRUMP: President Obama entered the United States into the Paris Climate Accords – unilaterally, and without the permission of Congress. This agreement gives foreign bureaucrats control over how much energy we use right here in America. These actions have denied millions of Americans access to the energy wealth sitting under our feet.
IR: Actually, the Paris Accords don’t actually have any new obligations for the United States. The problem with the Paris Accords is that they’re too weak, consisting of reiteration a voluntary commitments to actions that were already taken. There is nothing in the Paris Accords that requires the United States to do anything other than continue with the provisions that are already contained in Article 4 of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Congress already approved those provisions, which were established under a Republican President. Yes, the Paris Accords mean that the United States is just continuing to take actions that were begun 24 years ago. They Paris Accords were little more than a public relations gimmick – and Donald Trump won’t even go along with that [“An Annotated Transcript of Donald Trump’s Speech on Energy in Bismarck, North Dakota,” Irregular Times, 2016.05.27].
Trump told the Bismarck crowd he’ll bring back Keystone XL, and cites the false 42,000-new-jobs claim to justify it. Trump said he’ll “work with our Gulf allies to develop a positive energy relationship as part of our anti-terrorism strategy,” but President Obama noted yesterday that Trump has “rattled” our allies “because a lot of the proposals he has made display either ignorance of world affairs, or a cavalier attitude, or an interest in getting tweets and headlines,” and Trump in Bismarck endorsed rattling allies as good foreign policy.
Maybe we can’t trust Hillary Clinton. But we can definitely trust Donald Trump… to lie, delude, and blow up our foreign policy.
Delusional Donnie Drumpf is as clueless as any wingnut out there.
If Obie destroyed the energy industry, why did they keep setting profit records? Freaking YIKES!!!
mike from iowa
2016-05-27 14:43
In case Troy and Stace get in another argument about marriage-in North Dakota territory a marriage license cost a buck and a half.
mike from iowa
2016-05-27 15:32
On Thursday, Trump applied that same thesis to American energy production. “America’s incredible energy potential remains untapped,” he told a North Dakota audience in what was billed as a major policy address. “It’s totally self-inflicted. It’s a wound, and it’s a wound we have to heal.”
The problem with Trump’s analysis: It comes at a point when, judged solely on production numbers alone, American energy production is, well, pretty great.
Every year since 2012, the United States has produced more oil and natural gas than any other country. And it’s not just fossil fuels that are on a roll; the amount of electricity generated by wind and solar energy has also soared in the past decade.
From NPR
Roger Elgersma
2016-05-27 16:46
Cheap oil always did boost the rest of the economy. Did he say how much it would cost the rest of us if the Arabs raised the price of oil?
Nick Nemec
2016-05-27 20:58
Doesn’t The Donald believe in supply and demand? What kind of capitalist is he?
Donald Pay
2016-05-27 21:45
The oil industry isn’t interested in producing more oil right now. Oil is just coming off some decade lows the past week or two. What the industry fears more than anything is that $50 oil will cause some to pump more oil, thus putting downward pressure on the price. So, no, Trump really doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
If the US oil production is being held back why is it that the Republican dominated Congress repealed a 40 year old law banning the sale of US petroleum products over seas? Because big oil is producing so much oil and that combined with the increasing production of more affordable clean energy has driven prices down. That is until this law was repealed! Have you noticed the prices at the pump going up again?
But Trump’s outrageous lies sound like raw meat for those who have been hurt by the falling prices. They don’t realize that the big companies they work for, are at fault for their policy of, in Sarah Palin’s words, “Drill, baby, drill!!” Frack until it causes earthquakes, destroy the oceans with oil rigs, poison underground aquifers with leaky pipelines…it doesn’t matter, make that profit!!! While you can. Because, truth be told, Big Oil knows the days of fossil fuel dominance are numbered. Between overstocks of those fuels and the successful move to more affordable clean energy, they soon will lose most of their market!
leslie
2016-08-23 19:51
Antarctic ice shelf Larsen C could be headed for a similar fate as nearby Larsen A and Larsen B, which collapsed and disintegrated in 1995 and 2002, respectively.
Since March,…Larsen C,… crack has extended nearly 14 miles ― about 3 miles per month.
“As this rift continues to extend, it will eventually cause a large section of the ice shelf to break away as an iceberg,” the research project wrote.
Now, measuring some 80 miles in length, the crack could ultimately dislodge a chunk of ice the size of Delaware, The Washington Post reports.
That’s horrible, Ms. leslie. Where will all the penguins go?
Darin Larson
2016-08-23 20:19
Grudz, Halliburton would be happy to build a floating refuge or two for the penguins. Some economic development funds from the feds would help make this possible. Maybe they can hook onto that ice berg and tow it some place where they would get paid handsomely for a fresh water source. If the sea level rises by a meter, it opens up all kinds of new ocean front property, too.
Delusional Donnie Drumpf is as clueless as any wingnut out there.
If Obie destroyed the energy industry, why did they keep setting profit records? Freaking YIKES!!!
In case Troy and Stace get in another argument about marriage-in North Dakota territory a marriage license cost a buck and a half.
On Thursday, Trump applied that same thesis to American energy production. “America’s incredible energy potential remains untapped,” he told a North Dakota audience in what was billed as a major policy address. “It’s totally self-inflicted. It’s a wound, and it’s a wound we have to heal.”
The problem with Trump’s analysis: It comes at a point when, judged solely on production numbers alone, American energy production is, well, pretty great.
Every year since 2012, the United States has produced more oil and natural gas than any other country. And it’s not just fossil fuels that are on a roll; the amount of electricity generated by wind and solar energy has also soared in the past decade.
From NPR
Cheap oil always did boost the rest of the economy. Did he say how much it would cost the rest of us if the Arabs raised the price of oil?
Doesn’t The Donald believe in supply and demand? What kind of capitalist is he?
The oil industry isn’t interested in producing more oil right now. Oil is just coming off some decade lows the past week or two. What the industry fears more than anything is that $50 oil will cause some to pump more oil, thus putting downward pressure on the price. So, no, Trump really doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/05/28/donald-trump-tells-californians-there-no-drought/85082174/
If the US oil production is being held back why is it that the Republican dominated Congress repealed a 40 year old law banning the sale of US petroleum products over seas? Because big oil is producing so much oil and that combined with the increasing production of more affordable clean energy has driven prices down. That is until this law was repealed! Have you noticed the prices at the pump going up again?
But Trump’s outrageous lies sound like raw meat for those who have been hurt by the falling prices. They don’t realize that the big companies they work for, are at fault for their policy of, in Sarah Palin’s words, “Drill, baby, drill!!” Frack until it causes earthquakes, destroy the oceans with oil rigs, poison underground aquifers with leaky pipelines…it doesn’t matter, make that profit!!! While you can. Because, truth be told, Big Oil knows the days of fossil fuel dominance are numbered. Between overstocks of those fuels and the successful move to more affordable clean energy, they soon will lose most of their market!
Antarctic ice shelf Larsen C could be headed for a similar fate as nearby Larsen A and Larsen B, which collapsed and disintegrated in 1995 and 2002, respectively.
Since March,…Larsen C,… crack has extended nearly 14 miles ― about 3 miles per month.
“As this rift continues to extend, it will eventually cause a large section of the ice shelf to break away as an iceberg,” the research project wrote.
Now, measuring some 80 miles in length, the crack could ultimately dislodge a chunk of ice the size of Delaware, The Washington Post reports.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/larsen-c-antarctica-ice-shelf-cracking_us_57bb6e4ae4b00d9c3a19701c?section=&
That’s horrible, Ms. leslie. Where will all the penguins go?
Grudz, Halliburton would be happy to build a floating refuge or two for the penguins. Some economic development funds from the feds would help make this possible. Maybe they can hook onto that ice berg and tow it some place where they would get paid handsomely for a fresh water source. If the sea level rises by a meter, it opens up all kinds of new ocean front property, too.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v531/n7596/full/nature17145.html