Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to block the Green New Deal or anything like it. In the Trump administration, coal is king and oil is queen. He is probably fighting a losing battle in the U.S., because the economics of solar and wind power are already making it very competitive on strictly economic grounds. Utility companies know which way the wind is blowing (pun intended) and are not going to make investments of tens of millions of dollars in power plants that the next Democratic president may order them to shut down. So now, Trump is turning his attention to the rest of the world and is trying to force other countries to kill their solar and wind projects and burn more oil, gas, and coal.
As usual, his all-purpose tool for blackmailing other countries is threatening tariffs. The European Union agreed to buy $750 billion of American oil and gas over the next 3 years in order to get the tariff on E.U. products set to only 15%. South Korea agreed to buy $100 billion worth of U.S. liquefied gas. Japan agreed to invest $550 billion in U.S. energy infrastructure, part of which would be to ship oil and gas from Alaska to Asia. It is increasingly clear that Trump also intends to extort other countries into halting their transition to clean energy and force them to buy oil and gas from the U.S.
The one bright light here is that the U.S. does not have anywhere near the capacity to export all the oil and gas that countries have agreed to buy and building that infrastructure will take years. The other nations know this, and undoubtedly their promises were mostly smoke they are blowing up Trump's rear end. But damage will be done, as many countries will come to hate the U.S. for meddling in their domestic energy policies. Trump couldn't care less what they think about the U.S. or him as long as they promise to obey his orders and give him "wins."
Energy Secretary Chris Wright is on board with Trump. He told other countries that setting a net-zero emission target was a "sinister goal." (V)