Hey Kids, It’s National Energy Dominance Month!

This October, we officially celebrate the coal and oil industries. Says President Trump.

“Children, big news. President Trump made it official: October is National Energy Dominance Month. (For you older kids, that ‘s “dominance” not “dominatrix.” It does NOT mean Melania in leather!) The name of the month is hard for a lot of kids to say,  so we’re using the initials and calling it N.E.D.  Can you draw a picture of Ned?  There’s a national contest for the best picture, with lots and lots of prizes.   You can win a bag of coal or a gallon of motor oil!  Or a balloon filled with natural gas!

“And that’s only the beginning of the fun.  Your teacher can help you make an oil derrick out of twigs or Q-Tips. Or the whole class can dig a miniature strip mine in the school lawn. And then you can eat some dark chocolate and make believe it’s coal and you’re a furnace!”

Or at least, that’s the kind of response from school you might expect, if only energy dominance was as exciting an idea as President Trump seems to believe.  If nothing else, you might expect libraries or bookstores to be setting up tables with books on the subject, like they do for Black History month. Still, if it’s not an idea that rouses the public, national energy dominance definitely gets Trump’s juices flowing.

Here’s the centerpiece of his October 3 proclamation: “In less than 2 years since returning to office, my Administration has transformed the United States into the most dominant energy superpower in the history of the world.” He doesn’t use exclamations marks and ALL CAPS in the staid prose of official proclamations, but you can tell he’s dying to add them. And no wonder, because this idea is the centerpiece of his environmental and energy policies.

The proclamation  breathlessly recounts his glorious achievements, as befitting the White House website’s theme (“Welcome to the Golden Age”). There’s the reversal of the “the disastrous oil, gas, and vehicle regulations that crippled our industries,” including the “single largest deregulatory action in American history” — repeal of the EPA endangerment finding. And, as they say on late-night TV ads, there’s more:

*  He has “unleashed millions of acres of Federal land for oil, gas, and coal production, approving over 6,000 drilling permits.”

*  He has “also committed over $1 billion to the revitalization of America’s beautiful, clean coal industry” and “saved over 100 coal plants.”

*  He has “ended the Green New Scam” (Trump-talk for Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act).

*  He has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which were “crafted by globalist politicians to plunder our wealth and undermine our sovereignty.” (The globalist villain in the case of the UN treaty was President George H.W. Bush).

And THERE”S EVEN MORE! (Sorry, just couldn’t resist). It all leads up to the greatest and most wondrous victory of them all: “achieving America’s full energy potential by securing the largest oil deal in all of human history.”  All of human history!  This turns out to refer to appropriating Venezuela’s oil. I’m not sure how that’s achieving US energy potential as opposed to Venezuelan energy potential, but let’s not get bogged down in details. It’s certainly a historic action, one way or another.

People sometimes accuse Trump of lacking any consistent policy beliefs, but that’s certainly not true in the areas of energy and environment.  He has one clear goal, maximizing fossil fuel use.  Everything revolves around that. And now we have a whole month officially set aside to celebrate his masterplan.

Truly a golden age.

coal, energy policy, Oil, Paris agreement, Trump Administration, UNFCCC