Be prepared to pay more for your energy accounts under Trump

Tariff payers beware. Trump’s main team to enrich their friendly industry with fossil fuel with “drill a baby drill” (and Exports of the child) The agenda is going to increase energy costs for US households.

Burning fossil fuel is deadly at many levels. Pollution in our air and water from burning coal, oil and gas kills people. Pollution from the removal of fossil fuels and transporting them kills people. And the climatic crisis and its extreme weather phenomena – extreme heat waves, breastfeeding wild fires and hurricanes – kill people.

Just as our constant dependence on fossil fuels kills people and entire ecosystem, slowing our transition to clean energy kills work. Due to the legislative achievements of President Joe Baiden – the Law on Reduction of Inflation, the law on two -party infrastructure and the law on chips and science – we saw that pure energy projects are creating More than 406,000 new jobsAnd hundreds of thousands of additional jobs as a indirect result of these new pure energy jobs.

We process whole supply chains for products and technologies that will be the basis of a new global economy. US production will return. And after the loss of 65,000 American factories, from the moment the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force 30 years ago, the factories are now returning – this time, building solar panels, wind generators, electric vehicles and batteries.

But there is not enough interests of fossil fuel and their allies in the Trump administration to put in our lives and life. They sprint that these factories are empty once again, sending US workplaces in any place except America when they kill our pocket books with more energy costs.

Energy from solar and wind energy is not just Less expensive and More stable The fossil fuel energy, it continues cheaper. Therefore, the efforts of the Trump administration and its allies in Congress to slow the transition to pure energy are anti-consumers, as well as anti-member. When they say They want to come after The Law on Reduction of Inflation or the Cancellation of the Green New Course policy, they talk about increasing the cost of lighting and heating your home.

Everything is based on a big lie that increasing production and supply of fossil fuels will reduce energy costs. It’s hardly. Especially when we talk about the export of these fossil fuels. And this leads us to “liquefied natural gas” or LNG.

Become richer

The US is already a leading world exporter of LNG. And the LNG life cycle – from fracting and transport to liquefaction and refinement to delivery and burning – threatens the leakage of methane (powerful greenhouse gas), which makes it almost as harmful to climate as coal. But the LNG market is also unstable. Oil and gas companies have ambitious Export expansion plans For countries and markets that will pay much more than LNG than on the domestic market. It raises prices here, at home.

Energy Department Published a report Confirming that unobstructed exports of LNG will lead to an increase in prices for internal energy, which additionally supports the pause of Biden administration on export projects of LNG as the right choice.

But large oil and gas can get rich from higher prices that other countries are willing to pay, so they do not care that household energy is burdened here at home. And they are even ready to undermine our national security, providing LNG to our competitors, as well as the Chinese government, which will then be able to resell it and use their role as a supplier of energy in other places of the world. All this time household consumers potentially face pay Billions more in annual energy costs.

President Donald Trump has made great promises to oil and gas companies in exchange for their support. At one campaign raising, Trump told oil and gas managers If they collectively made $ 1 billion in re -election, they would essentially receive anything you like, and it would be a “agreement” for them. They received a message. In addition to many other high -dollar contributions in the industry, CEO took $ 250,000. Cheniere continues to rapidly develop more export capacities at new and existing LNG terminals on the Gulf Coast.

LNG is not the only way when Trump can increase energy costs. If it is threatened by 25% of Canadian and Mexican import tariffs, pump prices can increase 35 to 75 cents per gallon. This is, according to the head of Gasbuddi Oil, Patrick de Haan, who says that the increase may be the simplest in the average west and rocky mountain regions, but will probably take place in all regions. And Trump’s surprise war on energy efficient home appliances threatens Savings in Utility Accounts This would benefit millions of households and are especially important for low -income families. These families spend as much as Four times more to energy accounts as part of household income.

Trump spoke in a big game to reduce energy prices. But most of the proposed policies are much more likely to increase costs. Americans need to relieve high energy prices, rather than sacrifice on the altar of profit from the fossil fuel industry.

Ben Jervna is the executive director of the Sierra Club and Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

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