Those who follow this blog know very well how much the question of energy and green deal interests me, now even more since I am also the vice president of the Mattei Foundation of Matelica. In recent days, I made a beautiful chat with Sterling Burnett, director of the Centro Climate Center and environmental policies of the Heartland Institute, an American conservative Think Tank, to understand what the future of energy in America will be, and if it will be possible in Trump’s America, a fast and sudden turning U -turn against the environmental follies of the four years of Biden. The picture that Sterling made me was very clear.
According to Sterling, Trump’s political will in overturning Biden’s energy policies is obviously. Trump has the ability to go back compared to Biden’s executive orders. Trump can intervene on the various obligations regarding, for example, electric cars, but then some environmental limits are dictated by agencies such as the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), which are not touched by the executive orders of Trump. Modifying the crazy limits of CO2 emissions established by the EPA will be more complicated and tortuous, and will take you back different causes. All this to say, according to Stirling, that the signature of the executive orders is only the first small step of a battle that will probably be won, but that will commit American justice and not a little.
The same goes for example for offshore oil perforations, which Biden has practically made impossible to make, and the congress – with a law dating back to several years ago – gave the president the power to ban offshore oil perforations. Now, always according to Sterling, Trump obviously wants to go back compared to this madness, but the devil is in detail: it is not clear if he can do it, as the law does not provide for it. A clear example of this was when Trump tried to reduce the monumental land in America, and the various courts rejected the attempt, as it was not specified that a president could go back to the expansion of the land, and therefore where the drums cannot operate. As for offshore perforations, in the end Trump will have to resign himself to the fact that he will be able to do very little, and that the intervention of the congress will serve with an ad hoc law.
The problem is that at the congress then, the Republicans are not all aligned with the sorcerer. Today there is no particular problem in the Chamber of Representatives, but in the Senate there will be difficulties according to Sterling. Then there is a problem with the Interior Secretary, Burgum, who has crazy positions on Green policies: he supports the Carbon Capture and is a Campaigner of the Climate Change. Dough Burgum, however, has ambitions and wants to make a career, and knows very well that Trump is willing to fire his ministers. Sterling is certain that Burgum will follow Trump slavish in his energy policies, under penalty of dismissal and squeezing of his political ascent. The presence in the Gop of anti-Maga politicians, however, remains a big problem for Trump and his energy policy.
American energy policies will surely change, and now the political will to overcome Biden’s Green Deal is there. There will be some shocks, but the track is marked and from there we do not go back. In Europe, however, Ursula von der Leyen has absolutely no critical rethinking on the Green Deal: the EU is going to 300km per hour against the wall of reality.