Posted on Wednesday, February 19, 2025
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by Ben Solis
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2 Comments
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Slight upticks in gasoline and electricity prices in recent weeks have resulted in a flood of corporate media proclamations that President Donald Trump is already breaking his promise to voters to deliver “the number one lowest cost energy on Earth.” But beneath the excited headlines, it is clear that the Trump energy revolution is well underway, despite some temporary and predictable price fluctuations.
The cost of gas has indeed climbed by a few pennies per gallon over the past several days, leading to declarations from CNN, The New York Times, and others that Trump’s tariffs are to blame. “Gas Prices Are Soaring Again Under Trump” reads one headline from Newsweek.
But as that same article acknowledges some nine paragraphs in, rising costs at the pump are largely the result of annual maintenance work that takes place each spring at pumps and refineries. This year, prices are increasing especially fast on the West Coast due to “maintenance and unexpected refinery outages.”
Moreover, the price of a gallon of gas is still well below the record of $4.99 set the week of June 16, 2022, at the height of the Biden inflation crisis.
Inflation stats also show that electricity prices rose 1.1 percent month-over-month in January – another data point the media has used to bash Trump’s economic agenda. Again, however, this narrative is woefully inaccurate, as inflation data for the first few months of Trump’s second term will be reflective of former President Joe Biden’s policies until Trump’s changes have time to take effect.
On that front, Americans have ample reason for optimism, as Trump has made reversing Biden’s energy policies and boosting production a top priority of his first month in office.
On day one of his second term, Trump signed an executive order declaring a “national energy emergency” and mandating that every federal agency “exercise any lawful emergency authorities available to them… to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources.”
Another day one executive order on “unleashing American energy” implemented a slew of other measures to boost domestic production and ultimately bring down prices, including overturning 12 energy-related Biden orders. One critical section of that order mandates an “immediate review of all agency actions that potentially burden the development of domestic energy resources.”
Other sections of the order halted payouts of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) subsidies and called for eliminating the Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandate – two key issues Trump campaigned on last year. The IRA subsidies in particular could have cost taxpayers $1.2 trillion while wreaking havoc on oil and gas suppliers that produce the most cost-effective and reliable energy.
Just as importantly, Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and ordered federal agencies to “put the interests of the United States and the American people first in the development and negotiation of any international agreements with the potential to damage or stifle the American economy.” In doing so, Trump has freed the United States from obligations that would lead to further deindustrialization and the loss of high-paying jobs in order to fulfill unrealistic, ineffective commitments that lead to higher prices for consumers.
Dr. Hans Vollmueller, a Swiss energy policy specialist, described these policies as “a true regulatory revolution.”
“It feels like creating a new world for energy companies and investors who likely did not expect it,” he added.
Trump’s actions represent a marked shift from the Biden administration, which literally laughed at the idea that the White House could bring down energy prices at all – even as Biden waged a regulatory war on American energy producers, shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, canceled drilling permits, and intentionally surrendered the hard-won energy independence achieved under Trump.
This led to almost comical yet deeply alarming scenes, such as Biden’s National Security Adviser begging OPEC+ producers to increase oil production. In addition, along with record-high gas prices, electricity bills soared nearly 30 percent during Biden’s tenure.
In total, the Institute for Energy Research logged 250 ways in which “the Biden-Harris administration, and their allies, have made it harder to produce oil & gas.” Two lawyers who consult with energy companies told me that Trump has already removed “about 80 percent” of these obstacles that Biden imposed on the energy industry, leading to increased investment and job growth.
Amid these changes, the United States seems poised to once again become a net energy exporter – something Trump achieved in 2019 for the first time in nearly 70 years. New energy projects will take time to plan and build, and prices may remain stubbornly high until companies can get more products to market. But Trump’s rapid-fire approach in the early weeks of his second term suggests that costs will ultimately come down and that an energy revolution is well underway.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
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