Donald Trump's successful effort to Grover Cleveland himself into a non-consecutive second term has, as we have seen, sent the left into a tizzy. In fact, he's sent them into a veritable avalanche of tizzies, to the point where the left is in serious danger of tizzy fatigue. One of the biggest worries the left has about "Trump II, This Time He's Not Kidding" is the environment.
The climate scolds and Green New Deal types, of course, heavily - no, exclusively favor Democrats, who favor a serious degradation of our modern lifestyle in the name of climate change and the environment - even those few of these folks actually live out in the environment they claim to be so worried about. But now, it turns out that a few simple policy changes by the incoming Trump administration may actually help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions while helping the American economy.
How can that be? It's all about natural gas, guest blogger Diana Furchtgott-Roth writes in an op-ed at Watts Up With That:
At the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Azerbaijan, attendees are full of dire predictions that the world’s climate will worsen under President-elect Trump. But when Trump fulfills his campaign promises to increase U.S. oil and gas production and removes President Biden’s pause on new liquid natural gas exports, global emissions will likely decline rather than rise.
This is because exports of U.S. natural gas generally displace coal, reducing global CO2 emissions. Even Germany, Europe’s largest manufacturer, is using lignite coal (rather than the less-polluting bituminous coal) to deal with shortages of renewables now that it has closed its nuclear power plants and Russian gas is no longer available.
About 3 billion people in emerging economies lack electricity and running water, and cook over wood and dung. Natural gas power plants would reduce particulates from wood and dung and make the air cleaner. Under President Biden, the World Bank does not make loans for fossil fuel power plants.
Wood heating does indeed put a fair amount of particulate in the air - anyone who doubts that is welcome to come look at the snow on the roof around our wood stove's stovepipe. But we're talking about system-level changes, and a dramatic increase in American oil and gas production will have a significant effect on prices - even gas we don't export, as these are fungible commodities. And that will make the use of gas-fired power plants more practical, which will incentivize gas rather than coal plants, and will reduce emissions. That's what the climate scolds want, right?
But American exports of coal to Europe have been increasing under President Biden. Furchtgott-Roth continues:
More U.S. gas for export will lower prices of Russian and Qatari gas, harming countries that are invading Ukraine and tied to Iran. Prices are set based on future production, and even announcements of energy production will weaken America’s enemies.
Natural gas production has lowered U.S. emissions of CO2, which have declined by a billion metric tons over the past 16 years as natural gas has substituted for coal use in the generation of electricity. Over the same period, CO2 emissions in China have risen by 5 billion metric tons.
Between 2022 and 2023 US coal exports to Europe increased by 22% compared with the prior year. Because coal has more emissions than natural gas, it is surprising that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has not asked for a pause in coal exports, only on natural gas exports.
Things may already be changing:
Europe is America’s biggest customer, and in a phone call to President-elect Trump, European Union President Ursula von der Leyen suggested that US natural gas could replace Russian gas.
That's good news - it's good for the American gas and oil companies, it's good for jobs in the American energy sector, and yes, it's good for the environment.
See Related: Elections Have Consequences: Trump to End Offshore Wind Subsidies 'on Day One'
New US Government Report: Climate Change 'Not an Existential Threat' to Humanity
At the UN COP29 Climate Conference: Yet Another Tiresome Proposed Sin Tax on Meat
Of course, ramping up the production of nuclear power plants would help as well - but the horizon on that is longer than just ramping up natural gas production.
Natural gas is a big improvement over coal. It's cleaner, it has higher energy density, it can be transported by pipeline instead of train car or truck. It's better all the way around. And President-elect Trump has been adamant about ramping up America's gas and oil production. America will benefit from this (and, speaking rather selfishly, Alaska's North Slope energy production workers will benefit from this). Europe will also benefit from this, not only by gaining a reliable source of clean natural gas but also by the cessation of pouring euros into the pockets of Tsar Vladimir I of Russia.
And, yes, the environment will benefit from this as well.
Nobody is more concerned with the environment than those of us who live out in it. But policies like this must be based on facts, not emotional hand-wringing about climate change. The fact is, that the increase in American natural gas production is good for everyone involved. It's one more positive consequence of this election.
