New policy threatens to undermine decades of campaigns for efficient cars and other conservation programs

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Conserving oil is no longer an economic imperative for the US, the Trump administration has declared in a major new policy statement that threatens to undermine decades of government campaigns for efficient cars and other conservation programs.

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One analyst critical of the move said it was “like saying: ‘I’m a big old fat guy, and food prices have dropped – it’s time to start eating again”. He added: “There’s a downside to living large.”

The position was outlined in a memo released last month, without fanfare and in support of the administration’s proposal to relax fuel mileage standards.

Growth of natural gas and other alternatives to petroleum has reduced the need for imported oil, which “in turn affects the need of the nation to conserve energy”, the US energy department said. It also cited fracking, which has unlocked shale oil reserves, for giving “the United States more flexibility than in the past to use our oil resources with less concern”.

The administration is formally challenging old justifications for conservation – even congressionally prescribed ones such as mileage standards.

The memo made no mention of climate change. Transportation is the single largest source of climate-changing emissions.

Donald Trump has questioned the existence of climate change, embraced the notion of “energy dominance” and called for easing what he calls burdensome regulation of oil, gas and coal, including repealing the Obama Clean Power Plan.

Despite the increased oil supplies, the administration continues to believe in the need to “use energy wisely”, the energy department said – without elaboration. Department spokesmen did not respond to questions about that statement.

But Tom Kloza, an oil analyst with the Maryland-based Oil Price Information Service, said: “It’s like saying, ‘I’m a big old fat guy, and food prices have dropped – it’s time to start eating again.’ If you look at it from the other end, if you do believe that fossil fuels do some sort of damage to the atmosphere ... you come up with a different viewpoint. There’s a downside to living large.”

Climate change is a “clear and present and increasing danger”, said Sean Donahue, a lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund.

Oil prices have dropped. Just 10 years ago, prices peaked at $147 a barrel, pummeling the global economy and giving the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) a massive transfer of wealth from countries dependent on imported oil. Prices now are about $65 and the US is vying with Russia to be top world oil producer. US production hit an all-time high this summer.

“Our ability to play that role as a leader in the world is stronger when we are the strongest producer of oil and gas,” said John Graham, a former official in the George W Bush administration, now dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. “But there are still reasons to want to reduce the amount we consume.”



Current administration proposals include one that would freeze mileage standards for cars and light trucks after 2020, instead of continuing to make them tougher. The proposal would increase US oil consumption by 500,000 barrels a day, the administration says.

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Trump officials say the freeze would improve highway safety. Documents released this month, however, showed senior Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staffers calculated the move would increase highway deaths.

“American businesses, consumers and our environment are all the losers under his plan,” said Tom Carper, a Democratic senator from Delaware. “The only clear winner is the oil industry. It’s not hard to see whose side President Trump is on.”

This month, Bill Wehrum, assistant administrator of the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, spoke dismissively of electric cars, an industry supported by the federal government and many states.

“People just don’t want to buy them,” Wehrum said.

In June, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and other industries wrote to eight governors, promoting the dominance of the internal-combustion engine and questioning their states’ incentives to consumers for electric cars.

Surging US production has brought on “energy security and abundance”, Frank Macchiarola, a group director of the API trade association, told reporters in a call dedicated to urging scrapping or overhauling of a federal program for biofuels.

Fears of oil scarcity used to be a driver of energy policy, Macchiarola said. Thanks partly to increased production, he said, “that pillar has really been rendered essentially moot”.