Daily Caller
Biden’s Signature Climate ‘Boondoggle’ Might Be On Chopping Block After Trump Win
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
In the wake of the election of President Donald Trump to serve a second term in office, along with presumptive Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, many are now asking about what the future will hold for the oddly named Inflation Reduction Act.
Trump made it repeatedly clear on the campaign trail that he is not a fan of that law, which was passed on straight party-line votes in both houses of Congress, or of the hundreds of billions of dollars in green energy subsidies contained in it.
In a statement sent out in a post-election memo, Sierra Club President Ben Jealous took on a pessimistic tone, saying: “Donald Trump was a disaster for climate progress during his first term, and everything he’s said and done since suggests he’s eager to do even more damage this time.” Given the major role played by the Sierra Club and other climate-alarm groups in writing the IRA, that is exactly the kind of comments we might expect.
But a full repeal of the IRA seems unlikely to succeed, even with GOP control of the House and Senate. Republican majorities will be slim and the GOP has never shown an ability to hold all its members together when voting on controversial issues. Thus, a more scalpel-like approach seems more likely to succeed.
I asked Karr Ingham, a respected petroleum economist who serves as the president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, if he thinks Trump and his administration would seek to repeal the Inflation Reduction act in full. Ingham said: “I certainly hope so.” Specifically, Ingham pointed to a need to repeal “the methane tax [waste emissions charge] in the IRA, and frankly, much of the spending boondoggle that is the IRA should simply be eliminated.”
Tom Pyle, president of D.C.-based think tank the Institute for Energy Research, said he believes President Trump “absolutely should” pursue a full repeal of that law. “The vast array of subsidies embedded in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is already destabilizing our electricity grid, while the spending further fuels inflation and contributes to soaring government deficits.”
Pyle further notes that Trump has promised an array of tax cuts for working Americans and families and will need to find budget offsets for those. Pyle believes the IRA offers such an opportunity. “Getting rid of subsidies for big corporations in exchange for tax relief on working families is both good policy and good politics,” he adds.
But American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers said his group favors retaining at least some major pieces of the IRA, specifically pointing to subsidies for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen development. “We’ll advocate for provisions that we support, and we’ll seek repeal of provisions that we think don’t line up with continued production in the states of oil and gas,” Sommers told Politico. This is no surprise given that some of API’s biggest members have already made big bets on both CCS and hydrogen projects.
It is also important to remember that, since the IRA was signed into law in September 2022, renewable energy companies have invested hundreds of billions of dollars into wind, solar and electric vehicles projects, and a big portion of those investments are happening in key Republican states and counties.
Jason Grumet, CEO at the American Clean Power Association, said in a statement that, “Private sector clean energy investment is bringing jobs and economic opportunity to small towns and rural communities across the nation, while hundreds of new factories have come online in states that have seen far too many good jobs move overseas.” Grumet also pointed to the fact that quite a lot of investment into both wind and solar took place during Trump’s first term in office even without the added incentives from the IRA subsidy and tax incentive regimes, adding that ACPA and its members are “committed to working with the Trump-Vance administration and the new Congress to continue this great American success story.”
There is little question the Trump administration will take a hard look at many of the IRA provisions, but political realities combined with the billions already invested based on the continuation of these programs makes a full repeal seem highly unlikely.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Ireland Owens
Some Canadian premiers are calling on the government to respond strongly to tariff threats from President-elect Donald Trump, Canada’s Finance Minister said Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with premiers as well as other government ministers Wednesday to discuss Trump’s vow to impose tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico when he returns to the Oval Office, according to Reuters. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that Canada could stall energy exports to the U.S. in response, Reuters reported.
Under the previous Trump administration, Canada responded to U.S. tariffs by placing tariffs on various goods including bourbon, cherries and Harley Davidson motorcycles, Reuters reported.
“A number of premiers offered strong support for a robust Canadian response that included some of the premiers proactively naming critical minerals and metals that their provinces produce, and which are exported to the United States,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The president-elect has embraced tariffs, previously calling them the most “beautiful” word and proposing sweeping tariffs across various industries. Trump threatened in November to impose 100% tariffs on any BRICS nation that abandons the U.S. dollar and vowed in September to impose 200% tariffs on John Deere products if the company relocates its manufacturing operations to Mexico.
Trudeau met with the president-elect in Mar-a-Largo in November after Trump threatened to impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada unless both countries do more to control their border with the U.S. to prevent the flow of illegal drugs and illegal immigrants into the states. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also hinted at retaliation if Trump imposes tariffs on her country.
There has been a surge of illegal migrant crossings at the northern border under the Biden-Harris administration. There were 18,944 encounters at the northern border in August alone, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). There have been 198,929 total encounters at the northern border in the 2024 fiscal year, compared to 189,402 total encounters at the northern border in fiscal year 2023, the CBP data shows.
Bank of Canada Gov. Tiff Macklem said Wednesday that Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on imports could cause disruption to Canada’s economy, according to The Wall Street Journal. Over 20% of Canada’s gross domestic product is linked to trade with the U.S., the WSJ reported. U.S. goods and services trade with Canada amounted to an estimated $908.9 billion in 2022, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
“It’s going to be difficult for businesses to take decisions against that background,” Macklem said. “There is a risk that [business] investment is weaker.”
Daily Caller
‘Proud Feminist’ Justin Trudeau Distraught That Americans Didn’t Vote For ‘First Woman President’
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Jason Cohen
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed sadness Tuesday about Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump defeated Harris with 312 electoral votes and won the popular vote with just under 50% of the total, according to the Cook Political Report. Trudeau, at an Equal Voice Foundation event, said women are “under attack” in the wake of America’s 2024 presidential election results, according to the National Post, a Canadian newspaper.
WATCH:
“We were supposed to be on a steady, if difficult sometimes, march towards progress. And yet, just a few weeks ago, the United States voted for a second time to not elect its first woman president,” Trudeau said. “Everywhere, women’s rights and women’s progress is under attack. Overtly, and subtly. But I want you to know that I am, and always will be, a proud feminist. You will always have an ally in me, and in my government.”
Over 25% of Canadians view Trump positively, while only 23% view Trudeau positively, according to a recent Abacus Data poll shared with the Toronto Star.
The Canadian government is beefing up its border security apparatus after Trump in November threatened to levy a 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico unless they do more to limit the flow of illegal immigration and drugs entering the United States. Trudeau subsequently met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence and his government has described the additional steps it is taking to bolster immigration enforcement.
“We got, I think, a mutual understanding of what they’re concerned about in terms of border security,” Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc, who accompanied Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago, said of the meeting in an interview with Canadian media. “All of their concerns are shared by Canadians and by the government of Canada.”
“We talked about the security posture currently at the border that we believe to be effective, and we also discussed additional measures and visible measures that we’re going to put in place over the coming weeks,” LeBlanc continued. “And we also established, Rosemary, a personal series of rapport that I think will continue to allow us to make that case.”
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