How Trump turned around a Biden energy policy based on hand waves and lies

The difference between the Trump and Biden energy agendas is more than two different policy prescriptions positions. It is a tale of two opposed visions of the role of government in shaping the future.

While the 100-day mark of the Trump presidency is a natural time to reflect on the early months, the more useful examination of the new president’s energy agenda is a direct comparison to two specific moments from the Biden years.

The first instance was the “pause” in liquid natural gas (LNG) exports. In January 2024, President Biden announced a halt to future LNG exports pending further study of “economic and environmental impacts.”

This decision did not stem from congressional determination or popular outcry. There was no consultation from outside groups, just a unilateral decision, vague and indecisive, compelling both industry and markets to adapt to the state of confusion.

When would the study conclude? Who was conducting it? What were the metrics for determining future decisions?

No one, not even the Biden administration, knew the answers. The pause was not based in quantifiable science or explicable fact, but purely in amorphous, shape-shifting political goo.

So nebulous was this action that even President Biden himself would later admit to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson that he had no idea what he was talking about.

Competing visions

Contrast that to the Trump administration, which not only ended the LNG pause on Inauguration Day but has since approved four new expansion projects, including a $44 billion joint venture with Japan and South Korea to build an LNG pipeline in Alaska. They have also created a new White House Energy Dominance Council for the sole purpose of fast-tracking energy production.

Two presidents, two visions: Biden demands industry pause until government could catch up. Trump orders government to get out of the way so industry can thrive.

President Joe Biden traveled to Somerset, MA to deliver remarks on tackling the climate crisis and seizing the opportunity of a clean energy future to create jobs and lower costs for families in 2022. Boston Globe via Getty Images

The second instance occurred in July 2022, where a sweaty Biden gave a climate-change speech in an empty lot in Massachusetts boasting about the dismantling of a coal plant.

Once again, Biden blasted the fossil fuel industry, recalling childhood memories of soot and pollution, saying, “That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer,” to the surprise and bewilderment of many.

But Biden pledged a better tomorrow, promising new green jobs fueled by government ­visionaries like himself.

Nearly three years later, the jobs haven’t come. The $250 million green manufacturing plant planned for that site was scrapped. Nothing has been built.

Where once the energy industry was working, and employing local men and women in union jobs, is now just that empty lot, a perfect metaphor of years of similar promises.

‘A critical mineral’

Contrast that to Trump’s executive order on coal. Surrounded by dozens of coal miners in hard hats, President Trump promised to end the war on coal. He called for an expansion to support ­future technologies like artificial intelligence.

He declared it “a critical mineral” and instructed the Department of Justice to investigate discriminatory laws and regulations targeting it.

President Trump even labeled coal “clean,” a sacrosanct word only bestowed upon wind and solar.

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts next to coal industry workers, on the day he signs energy-related executive orders at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 8, 2025 REUTERS

Biden was determined to end coal as part of his climate agenda. Trump looks at the world, particularly China, firing up new coal plants and wonders why America should be the only country to punish ourselves for this global cause.

Presidents and their policies matter, and President Trump has issued a flurry of executive actions on energy, but what he has done in these 100 days is greater than a reversal of bad policies or an acceleration of good ones. Trump has ushered in a change in the nation’s mindset.

American energy is good and clean, and the men and women who produce it deserve the support of the White House.

Biden punished American energy, forcing us to obey his government mandates, pushing a top-down climate agenda on the American people with inflammatory rhetoric and empty promises. Donald Trump forces government out of the way so that the energy industry can flourish, resulting in greater prosperity for all.

These 100 days are not merely about energy policy differences but a vision of the role of the presidency. After four years of Biden, these 100 days of Trump are putting the energy industry on the course of dominance that will make America richer, stronger and greater.

Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF