As MRCTV readers and viewers likely know, the Biden Administration has leveraged so many mistaken assumptions about federal power over “power provision” and fuel, immoral, unconstitutional control over land and sea, over energy refining, and over even the air around us, that energy in the U.S. costs much more than it should, inefficient energy sources have been subsidized, and many, many people who work in traditional energy exploration and supply have been put out of work, or close to it.
After all, Biden did pledge to “end” the use of “fossil fuels,” as he spread the unwarranted fear of a man-made climate apocalypse and carbon doom.
Thus, as Donald Trump readies his new administration, many beleaguered U.S. consumers and U.S. energy suppliers nervously await the policies and appointments that will either worsen the damage, or allow for a bit more freedom and economic growth.
In September, Trump promised that he would end the “Green New Deal,” which, technically, never was passed as a bill, but has been installed through multiple bills such as the misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act,” and via Bidenista regulatory edicts and international promises.
As Fast Company reported October 27:
“Brian Hughes, a Trump campaign senior adviser, told Reuters a broad rollback of the IRA remains a top priority if the former president wins the November 5 election, arguing the package has contributed to inflation and expanded the deficit.”
And Robert Walton reports for Utility Dive that Trump…
“…has vowed to support the U.S. oil and gas sectors, overturn rules limiting power plant emissions and roll back government support for electric vehicles.”
And Walton notes the enthusiastic hopes of Thomas Pyle, the President of the Institute for Energy Research (IER) and its advocacy arm, the American Energy Alliance, who said in a statement:
"He (Trump) promised to embrace domestic oil and gas production, lower energy and electricity prices, and undo the inflationary Biden-Harris Green New Deal policies, especially the wasteful taxpayer-funded subsidies in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act."
But, before one gets too excited, it is important to take in other key pieces of information.
For example, as I reported for MRCTV last week, Vice President-elect Vance recently spoke to auto workers in Detroit and decried the Biden subsidies for electric vehicles – not because the subsidies are unconstitutional and wasteful, not because they use government pressure to try to redirect the market, but because, as Vance put it, the subsidies were too small, or to use his parlance, they were “table scraps.”
Additionally, while some pop media outlets nervously claim that Lee Zeldin, Trump’s newly announced pick to head the EPA (Mr. Trump, a so-called “conservative,” SHOULD call for the immediate elimination of that unconstitutional agency) will “roll back” many of the onerous federal fuel restrictions and subsidies, and they note that the former NY Congressman voted against Biden's climate change law, opposed the NY state “goal to ban gasoline-powered cars by 2035,” and that, when he was in Congress, “Zeldin backed environmental bills 14% of the time,” those sensible positions don’t completely jibe with other anti-energy, pro-climate-cult moves Zeldin and others close to Trump have made.
Newsweek’s Erin Keller notes that Zeldin has opposed offshore drilling and he co-sponsored the House version of the 2021 Carbon Capture Improvement Act to unconstitutionally subsidize carbon capture projects like the widely disliked “Heartland Greenway” carbon pipeline so many citizens in Midwestern states justifiably oppose.
But there is more mystery, there are more questions and conflicting signals to consider.
For example, Fast Company and Reuters offer a worrying list of Trump advisors and “transition team” members whose financial interests don’t jibe with the idea of clearing-out the bureaucratic Bidenista baggage and subsidies that have caused so much damage to cheap energy provision, noting, in part:
“Summit Carbon Solutions: Oil magnate Harold Hamm has long been an energy adviser and political financier for Republican politicians, including Trump, and in May hosted a Houston fundraiser for Trump’s third presidential campaign.
His company Continental Resources in 2022 made a $250 million strategic investment into Summit Carbon Solutions, a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project that will capture CO2 from ethanol plants and other industrial sources in the Midwest.
That project relies on the 45Q tax credit for various forms of CCS, which the IRA increased sharply across the board.”
The 45Q tax credit is a method the feds use to push carbon capture investment, contrary to what the actual market would demand.
Related: South Dakota Farmers Fight 'Carbon Capture' Land Grabs of Their Homes
Reuters also cites these connections:
“Energy Transfer: Energy Transfer’s CEO Kelcy Warren is a longtime supporter of Trump. The pipeline operator also participates in projects supported by IRA tax credits, including two planned Louisiana CCS hubs, and a hydrogen hub in Texas that recently won just over $1 billion in Energy Department funding.
Cantor Fitzgerald: Trump’s transition team cochair Howard Lutnick is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a major financial services firm that has made significant investments in companies that benefit from the IRA.
As transition cochair, Lutnick is playing a key role in the search for high-level appointees to staff a potential Trump administration, and he has also served as a high-dollar fundraiser for Trump.
Among the companies that Cantor Fitzgerald has invested in that have benefited significantly from the IRA are Invenergy, a renewable energy firm that is the top constituent of the Cantor Fitzgerald Infrastructure Fund.
The infrastructure fund has more than $150 million in total net assets, according to a July press release, and its investment in Invenergy consists of 14.65% of that fund’s total investments.
The fund is also heavily invested in NextEra Energy, the largest U.S. renewable energy developer."
And author/researcher Whitney Webb recently noted many of these “carbon-credit/green-agenda” ties in an in-depth report for Unlimited Hangout:
“Chief among these is Howard Lutnick, the co-chair of Trump’s transition team who has stated that he is tasked with finding the ‘talent’ for the incoming administration. Lutnick is the long-time and current head of Cantor Fitzgerald, which was one of the earliest players in emission trading and has since become a global leader in ESG investing, ‘sustainable infrastructure’ financing and green bonds. For example, Cantor’s sustainable infrastructure fund is expressly committed to ‘digital transformation, decarbonization and the improvement and modernization of aging infrastructure,’ while ‘a primary focus for the Fund will be to invest in issuers that are helping to address certain United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through their products and services.’ In addition, the top constituent of another Cantor infrastructure fund is Invenergy, a renewable energy company that has received a significant amount of subsidies from the Biden’s controversial Inflation Reduction Act and is run by the country’s first “wind billionaire” Michael Polsky.”
And that’s not all…
“Lutnick also servers on the board of a satellite surveillance company called Satellogic. In addition to Lutnick, former Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin chairs its board and also on the board is Joe Dunford, the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. military under Trump. Satellogic is an integral part of a consortium attempting to use opaque contractual agreements at the municipal level to impose a massive, blockchain-based carbon market on Latin America. That carbon market, operating under the name GREEN+, is poised to be built on a Bitcoin side-chain and, as previously reported, its carbon credit scheme is deeply inequitable for Latin American communities. For instance, the only money communities could make from the scheme would be only available for GREEN+-approved “sustainable” projects while GREEN+ members would reap the bulk of the profits. The program would also subject communities to Satellogic’s satellite surveillance apparatus (tied to the U.S. government and Israeli intelligence) without their consent.”
As the adage goes, “the proof is in the pudding,” but, based on Trump’s public pronouncements, his new nominations, and his ties to investors with strong interests in climate cult subsidies and government manipulation of markets, one gets the impression that Mr. Trump’s policies will travel along two vectors: attempts to open land and water for drilling/fracking and to reduce burdens on power-plants, coinciding with continued corporate favoritism for “carbon capture” projects and EV manufacturing subsidies that have nothing to do with fulfilling real consumer demand.
Each of the matters mentioned here actually goes very, very deep and has multiple tentacles to follow through corporate ties and flimsy Neo-Marxist planning such as ESG, carbon credits, Climate Cult plans, international banking and more, but, right now, as Mr. Trump announces his nominees, we already can see that his own soon-to-be Vice-President has promoted unconstitutional “green” pork and that many of the people tied to the new Trump team have checkered pasts when it comes to the climate canard and to the US Constitution.
Let’s hope public scrutiny will help push them towards reducing the government influence on what should be a free market, and towards greater adherence to the U.S. Constitution.