In response to President Trump's declaration of a national energy emergency, economic analyst Steve Rattner shared that the hard facts contradict the story of the country's energy landscape.
In a shortened TikTok clip of Steve Rattner's Morning Joe show with MSNBC News (@msnbc), Rattner described how odd it was that Trump had declared a national energy emergency.
@msnbc #Morning Joe's Steve Rattner debunks President Trump's "perplexing" declaration of a "national energy emergency," pointing out that the U.S. is currently producing and exporting oil at record levels. Rattner also highlights the impact of Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, warning it could reverse years of progress on emissions reductions: "Instead of helping the world's climate problem, we go back to hurting it." #trump #donaldtrump #news #energy #politics #facts ♬ original sound - MSNBC
"It's really perplexing as to why he … called for a national energy emergency given that we are actually producing oil and gas at record amounts," Rattner explained as he pointed to the graph behind him.
According to the national energy emergency declaration — posted on the official White House website — the threat to the American people is "high energy prices," which is "exacerbated by our Nation's diminished capacity to insulate itself from hostile foreign actors."
The declaration identifies the existence of hostile state and non-state foreign actors that have "targeted our domestic energy infrastructure, weaponized our reliance on foreign energy, and abused their ability to cause dramatic swings within international commodity markets."
Essentially, President Trump is seeking energy independence to make the country more immune to foreign energy price volatility. He plans to expand domestic oil and gas exploration ("drill, baby, drill") to support these goals.
With the power of this emergency resolution, the administration can skirt environmental and legal regulations, including the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, to encourage more drilling for oil and gas.
However, as Rattner explained, the country is already producing a record high of oil and gas. On top of that, the United States is experiencing significant and steady increases in renewable energy production, with solar energy and battery storage capacities in 2024 easily surpassing 2023 numbers.
The country is not experiencing a shortage of energy production. Quite the contrary — the U.S. has become an annual net total energy exporter since 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
That means that the country exports more energy than we import, which contradicts the basis of President Trump's national energy emergency and the need to drill for more oil and gas.
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Definitely 💯 "The Inflation Reduction Act, limits on tailpipe emissions, the emphasis on renewable energy had put us on an extraordinary path down," on energy emission targets, Rattner said. Trump's national energy emergency plans will have the opposite effect. "Instead of helping the world's climate problem, we go back to hurting it."
"Facts matter. Why do so many people ignore the facts?" one commenter asked.
Another commenter joked: "He declared emergency in advance of the emergency he's going to be creating."
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