SEN KATIE BRITT: Trump and his team ready to supercharge America’s economy and energy sector

We often talk about history repeating itself, but rarely have we seen it as clearly as we do now. In the 1970s, America’s economy was in disaster mode, plagued by historic levels of inflation and stagnant growth. 

Our flawed foreign policy led to the Iranian revolution and the abduction of 66 American citizens in Tehran, which only increased costs at home – costs that had already soared through the roof during a long-term energy crisis.

Since January 2021, over the course of former President Biden’s tumultuous time in the White House, the American people have suffered from very similar conditions to those in the late 1970s. The rate of inflation in 2022 hit a 40-year high, and everyday goods and services, like margarine (56.8% increase), car insurance (47.3% increase), and eggs (40.1% increase), cost significantly more than they did in 2020. 

The United States has been in embarrassing decline on the international stage over the past four years, with Afghanistan falling in disastrous fashion, Russia invading Ukraine, Iran sponsoring large-scale terrorist attacks that killed American citizens, and Communist China threatening territorial expansion.

DONALD TRUMP IS OUR PRESIDENT AND DEMOCRATS HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO

Just as in 1980, the American people in November elected a Republican to utilize the time-worn principle of peace-through-strength policies that restore credible American deterrence in the face of regimes that would do us harm. 

Before even taking office, President Trump has demonstrated he will foster a prosperous economy, a vigorous national defense, and – importantly – unleash the power of American energy, where there’s a laundry list of ways to solve the problems government created over the past four years.

The Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seems to have confused protecting the environment with punishing productivity. The regulations the current iteration of the EPA has proposed are neither constitutional nor coherent; they run afoul of U.S. Supreme Court rulings and would spell disaster for energy producers and consumers – from families and small businesses to farmers and manufacturers. 

TRUMP’S (SECOND) FIRST 100 DAYS GIVES DEMOCRATS OPPORTUNITIES

For example, take the agency’s vehicle emissions standards, effectively a heavy-handed plan to phase out gas-powered automobiles and replace them with electric cars. Those punitive rules set targets for the number of electric models produced in the U.S. as a percentage of all light- and medium-duty vehicles created each year. Those standards, as you might imagine, are the strictest in American history.

By 2032, two-thirds of new vehicles would have to be electric. For reference, electric vehicles accounted for just 5.8% of new cars sold in the U.S. in 2022. The Biden-Harris EPA wants to kill the gas-powered car industry.

The EPA hasn’t stopped with regulations. It issued a rule this past November to institute a “waste emissions charge” on high-methane-emitting oil and gas facilities as part of the poorly named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The “charge,” a tax by another name, starts at $900 per metric ton of “wasteful” emissions in 2024 before increasing to $1,200 in 2025 and $1,500 in 2026 and beyond. 

While companies could reduce or even eliminate the penalty through using methane-reduction technology, in doing so they would incur expenses that in some cases would be higher than the tax itself.

CONGRESS IS READY TO WORK WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP TO DELIVER ON MANDATE FROM AMERICANS

The problems with that tax do not end with energy producers. The costs will – as always – be passed on to the consumer, meaning energy would be more expensive for all Americans if this provision is allowed to stand. It’ll be bad for Alabama, too: The tax applies to offshore and onshore petroleum and natural gas production, two resources with which our state has been blessed. 

It doesn’t have to be this way, and Republicans and President Trump are committed to fixing it.

I firmly expect President Trump’s EPA pick, former Congressman Lee Zeldin of New York, to work to dismantle the agency’s red tape regime of stifling regulations and inflationary taxes. And he will not be the only one working to reverse the unlawful, unnecessary and undeniably harmful policies of the Biden administration.

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Doug Burgum, the former North Dakota governor and incoming secretary of the Interior who will also lead the newly formed National Energy Council, will unshackle our country’s pioneering spirit and launch us into a new era of American energy dominance just as he’s done in his home state.

The nominees and appointees President Trump has chosen to power energy policy in his new administration demonstrate his commitment to fixing the problems ailing us. President Trump will lead us to morning in America once again, and my colleagues and I are ready to help make it happen.

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