Halving energy prices? Big risk for the oil and gas industry - experts doubt Trump's plans

FR Halving energy prices? Big risk for the oil and gas industry - experts doubt Trump's plans Fabian Hartmann • 23 hours • 4 minutes reading time Trump's energy policy not only rejects the Biden administration, but also climate change. He wants to promote fossil fuels and halve their prices. Experts have concerns. Washington, D.C. - The US President-elect Donald Trump has taken a clear energy policy course in the weeks and months of the election campaign: softening or completely abolishing environmental policy requirements and promoting the extraction of fossil fuels. "Drill baby, drill" was Trump's declaration at the Republican Party convention in July and he also adopted this energy policy slogan during the election campaign. In numerous appearances during the US election campaign, Trump subsequently promised to halve energy costs within the first 18 months of his four-year term in office. While environmentalists fear massive consequences, experts in the natural gas and oil industry consider his energy policy campaign promise to be only partially realistic. Yes to fossil energy sources, no to climate change - Trump could appoint fracking entrepreneur Wright as Energy Minister Trump's transition team is currently developing a concrete strategy to implement the Republican's plans in energy policy, the New York Times (NYT) recently reported. The US media outlet cites three people familiar with the issue who wished to remain anonymous because of their role in internal discussions. Less than two months before Joe Biden hands over the US presidency to Trump in January, the Republican is gradually naming who he would like as minister for his second term. Last Saturday (November 17), for example, it was announced that Trump could appoint Christ Wright, CEO of the fracking company Liberty Energy, as Energy Minister. "As Secretary of Energy, Chris will take on an important leadership role, drive innovation, reduce bureaucracy and usher in a new golden age of American prosperity and world peace," Trump said in a statement made available to ZDF Heute. Wright is considered a skeptic of climate change and could help the Republican to implement his energy policy plans by promoting fossil fuels. With him, Trump is seamlessly continuing the energy agenda of his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, in which he promised to stimulate the economy, create jobs and become independent of energy imports. At the time, he opposed the course of the Obama administration, which sourced energy from as many different sources of generation as possible and sought a more sustainable supply. Now his drill-baby-drill strategy amounts to a rejection of the climate policy previously initiated by the Biden administration, which was geared towards the climate crisis. If Trump's new energy secretary were called Wright, energy and climate policy would reflect a dramatic change compared to the current minister, Jennifer Granholm: Granholm is committed to promoting electric vehicles and renewable energies such as wind, solar and geothermal energy. Experts consider Trump's election promise to reduce energy prices by 50 percent to be "highly unlikely" Immediately after Trump's election victory over Kamala Harris and the Democrats in the US election was confirmed, the Reuters news agency reported on November 7 that energy experts believe a downward slide in oil prices is possible during Trump's second term. The reasons given for this are that the creation of new fracking facilities and the suspension of existing regulations in favor of reducing emissions will simply mean that more oil will be produced than before. On the other hand, they believe that under Trump's influence on OPEC+, oil producers will reduce production cuts and geopolitical tensions will decrease. However, experts in the US oil and gas industry believe that Trump's campaign promise to cut energy prices, such as gas, by half within a year and a half is not very convincing. Although they believe that Trump can reduce oil and gas prices by boosting production and suspending environmental regulations, this is unlikely to lead to a reduction in prices in line with the Republican's ideas and promises. According to industry experts, this is also due to the costs that are likely to arise from new drilling projects and the construction of pipelines.