Here's what Donald Trump and Joe Biden have in common on energy policy
The late, great philosopher and New York Yankees baseball catcher, Yogi Berra, once declared, "It's déjà vu all over again." While Berra was referring to something relating to America’s favorite pastime, the same could be said about recent decisions by the Trump administration to cancel offshore wind projects up and down the East Coast, especially in comparison to the Biden administration’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline.
At first blush, these decisions might seem like exact opposites — one focused on renewable energy, the other at fossil fuels. But in reality, they are both political decisions that hurt confidence in the energy industry, jeopardize jobs and ultimately affect our nation’s domestic energy security. Predictability matters most when it comes to companies and workers in the energy field, whether you’re laying gas pipelines, exploring for oil or constructing wind farms.
And I’m not alone in expressing these concerns. In recent weeks, Colette Hirstius, president of Shell USA, publicly questioned the Trump administration’s decision to halt fully permitted wind projects, asserting it is "very damaging" to investment and calling for more consistency in regulation.
She reminded observers that "energy projects with proper permits should be allowed to proceed," regardless of political decision-making. Companies like Shell are not simply defending wind farms. Hirstius went further and warned that the same playbook could be used against oil and gas projects.
THIS IS HOW AMERICA WILL ACHIEVE ENERGY DOMINANCE
In 2020, I served as a surrogate for the Biden campaign because I believed in his pragmatic record of legislative and policy accomplishments. I didn’t agree with President Joe Biden on every issue, especially his decision to cancel Keystone XL, because it was more symbolic than substantive. No one energy project would have solved all of our energy problems, but Keystone XL represented a critical investment in domestic energy security, buoyed by years of environmental reviews, community engagement, permitting and industry planning. Canceling Keystone XL was wrong.
Like Keystone XL, offshore wind projects, including Revolution Wind, in construction off Rhode Island, and a series of projects near completion, had gone through years of reviews and approvals. Multiple companies had expended billions into planning, workforce training and supply chain development. Thousands of American workers, including welders, steelworkers, engineers and electricians, were relying on these projects for steady employment.
Canceling any energy project after construction has started doesn’t just delay bringing on much-needed sources of new energy, it also undermines the very foundation of how we do business in this country. If an approved project can be canceled because of the change of administrations, why would any company risk the capital to invest in future energy infrastructure? The result is paralysis.
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We are living through a period defined by both surging energy demand and increasing geopolitical instability. Families are struggling with high energy costs driven by both constrained supply and overregulation. The solution here is to pursue domestic energy resources of every kind.
In this environment, the commonsense strategy is not to pick winners and losers — but to pursue an "all of the above" energy policy that draws on every resource at our disposal, including oil, gas, nuclear, solar, hydro, and yes, wind. America should be producing more energy, not less. Both the Keystone XL and offshore wind cancellations undercut that vision. Instead of working to maximize capacity and diversify supply, they shrank the pie.
For decades, America’s debates over energy have been cast in zero-sum terms: oil and gas vs. renewables, coal jobs vs. clean technology, pipelines vs. wind turbines, with activists and industries battling it out in the courts and the court of public opinion. In reality, these false choices have done little to actually serve our energy, environmental or economic interests as Americans. We need them all – particularly homegrown, American-made sources of energy.
An "all of the above" energy strategy is not just good economics; it’s also good politics. Voters are tired of the pendulum swings, and tired of being told they have to choose one camp over another. They don’t want energy scarcity and blackouts. They want energy independence – something President Donald Trump aggressively campaigned on. They want America to lead, not lag. And they want jobs—whether those jobs are in the oil field, building state-of-the-art reactors or the shipyard assembling wind turbines.
Canceling Keystone XL was a mistake, and canceling permitted, financed and under construction wind projects is a mistake. If we are serious about achieving energy dominance, these are mistakes Americans just can’t afford.
