President Donald Trump has achieved energy independence for the United States, his Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told Breitbart News for an exclusive interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this weekend.

The interview, which aired Tuesday on Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel, focused on the Trump administration’s successes on energy, the environment, and the economy.

“Back in the 1970’s, you know, when I was growing up, we were dependent on nations that did not have our interests at heart,” Brouillette told Breitbart News. “I remember distinctly growing up in south Louisiana sitting in a gas line with my father wondering why we were waiting in line for gas. We were from Louisiana, an oil producing state. How could this be? We have moved from that to the world’s number one producer of oil and number one producer of gas and we’re the second largest producer of renewable energy in the world today. So, it’s a phenomenal success story and what does that mean? Well obviously it means, as the president reported, a good economy, a strong economy. These jobs that are being created in this energy industry all across the world, but importantly it also means that he has options in the foreign policy space that did not exist in the 70s or 60s or even just two decades ago. For instance, he can now move an embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and not have to look over his shoulder, not have to worry what that means for gas prices for America.

Because America is energy independent, Brouillette said, Trump can make decisive decisions without worrying about ruffling feathers around the world.

“He can take decisive actions and go after the Soleimanis of the world without having to worry about what that means for our energy supply to America,” Brouillette said. “It’s an exciting time and it continues to grow.”

Brouillette, in the interview, also made the case against socialism. President Trump has promised in his various State of the Union addresses that America will never become a socialist country. Brouillette, in his Breitbart News exclusive interview, said that socialism would harm the country significantly when it comes to energy.

“All you have to do is look at Venezuela,” Brouillette said when asked to make the case against socialism since CPAC’s theme was “America Versus Socialism.”

“Look down south and see what’s happening [in Venezuela],” Brouillette said. “A very energy rich nation. A very beautiful country, a rich country steeped in resources and it’s gone from that to what it is today, which is basically a complete collapse of their economy. There are important lessons to learn there for America. It’s the fundamental difference between the Trump administration policy, one that is built on energy diversity. We’re going to produce fossil fuels, we’re going to produce renewable energy, we’re going to produce nuclear energy. It’s a fundamentally different approach to what you see in a socialist nation.”

Brouillette added that unlike socialist nations, the Trump administration and the United States values“human innovation,” whereas socialists do not.

“We mentioned Venezuela and socialism earlier,” Brouillette said. “They don’t think of their people as very important if you will or as assets. It’s fundamentally different than here in the United States. The beauty of our approach is that we recognize the human innovation. The talents that Americans and humans bring to these energy issues. If you think about it a little bit philosophically, oil is what? Oil is nothing more than a dirty liquid in the ground. It doesn’t have value as resource until we apply our human talent to it and our human innovation to it and we use it as energy. That’s what we do in America so very well. It’s what socialist countries don’t do at all. They treat these resources as resources available to the government and not to the people and it’s just a radically different approach than we have here in America.”

Brouillette said that part of the success on energy in the Trump administration proceeds from a broader directive from the president to cut two regulations for every new one issued.

“The president gave us a directive very early in the administration to look at the regulatory policies that we have in each one of our agencies,” Brouillette said. “That’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve reviewed all of the regulations within the agencies and we made selective decisions about what to eliminate. And he was very specific. He said for every new regulation, you have to reduce another. What we’ve done over the last two to three years, for every new regulation we’ve imposed … we’ve reduced the regulations by 22 on the other side of the ledger. That opens up the market place, it opens up capital investment, it opens up the entire energy workspace for all Americans. And what we’re focused on, and the other directive he gave us, is focus on all forms of energy. So, for the president, all of the above literally means all of the above. It does mean coal, it does mean natural gas, it does mean crude oil, it does mean nuclear, it does mean renewable energy. So, it’s all of the above that gives us diversity. It gives us options, which if you come from a free market school of thinking, the more options you have as a consumer, the better pricing you’re going to get. That’s what we’re seeing all across America, cheaper pricing and more availability of energy.”

At CPAC, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Andrew Wheeler, said the environment has never been cleaner. Asked about that, Brouillette said that the reason is the “approach we take” in the Trump administration to energy production.

“It’s the development of nuclear energy, which is zero carbon, it’s carbon free, it’s emissions free,” Brouillette said. “What we’ve seen over the last decade or so is that we’ve been able to grow the economy by roughly 17 percent, perhaps a little more, because I don’t have the latest economic statistics. We’ve been able to grow the economy here in America and at the very same time, we have reduced carbon-related emissions from the energy field by fourteen percent. Think about that for a second. There is no other country in the world that can make that claim. We’ve grown our economy and at the same time reduced carbon-related emissions. It’s a fantastic story and I think it serves as a proof point to this approach of developing all forms of energy.”

LISTEN TO ENERGY SECRETARY DAN BROUILLETTE ON BREITBART NEWS DAILY: