This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The embattled Jeb Bush campaign turned to an industry his family knows well on Tuesday with a stop at a shale gas producer in Pennsylvania and the launch of an energy policy focused heavily on deregulation.



Promising to create 1m manufacturing jobs and energy security for North America if elected president, Bush blamed onerous environmental rules for holding back the growth of alternative drilling industries.



He also pledged to repeal the ban on oil and liquid natural gas exports from the US and immediately approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Canada’s tar sands to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico.

“We do not have a supply problem in our energy sector. We have a demand problem because of lack of infrastructure,” Bush told a crowd of employees at Rice Energy, a fast-growing drilling company based in Pennsylvania.

“As president I would also approve the XL pipeline – for crying out loud, that is the lowest-hanging fruit.”



The unabashed focus on energy liberalisation contrasts starkly with the views of Democratic party frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who announced her opposition to Keystone on the eve of the US visit by Pope Francis, who also called for the country to do more to tackle climate change.

Bush briefly mentioned the environmental benefits of natural gas, which he said was a less carbon-intensive fuel source, but insisted protection of land and waterways disrupted by fracking techniques had to go hand in hand with promoting economic growth.

“I am not suggesting unregulating the world. I am suggesting commonsense 21st century regulation,” he said.

“We need to embrace the energy revolution – we have it in our midst,” added Bush, who said he would leave future environmental regulation in the hands of states rather than so-called experts in Washington.

“When I am elected president, the political hacks and the academics are going to take the back seat. The people taking decisions will be ones with real-world experience,” he added.

Despite a sharp decline in his poll numbers, Bush remains the favourite of much of mainstream Republican business community.

“I hope your stock price goes up,” he told Rice employees sheltering from the rain in marquee that had set up in the company car park. “That is the American way. Praise Jesus.”

The former Florida governor joked at the evangelical tone to his remarks, adding: “I feel like I just met the pope. This is a tent revival meeting.”

With his sleeves rolled up despite the pouring rain, Bush claimed the company’s success “makes environmentalists nervous” but should be celebrated.

“Where’s the marching band, for crying out loud?” he said. “That’s the American way.”

The former Florida governor left without taking questions from journalists, who were forced inside a metal pen and prevented from leaving to speak to him after his speech, which only saw brief questions from the company founders.

After the former governor left, the press tent was overcome with fumes from one of the several generators that had been set up in the parking lot.