President Donald Trump kept another of his promises last month when the United States exported more oil than it imported for the first time almost a century.
Trump has promised throughout much of his presidency, and even before he was elected, that the U.S. would rely more on domestic oil production in what he referred to as energy independence.
To achieve that goal, he’s taken aim at burdensome energy regulations.
He eventually kept that promise, with the country exporting more oil than it imported last month for the first time in 75 years, “with thousands of wells pumping from the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico to the Bakken in North Dakota to the Marcellus in Pennsylvania,” as Bloomberg noted.
That publication first reported on the shift while adding that it is a pivotal moment that is likely to last briefly.
The article cited data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing that in the final week of last month, the U.S. sold a net 211,000 barrels a day of crude and refined products, such as gasoline and diesel.
This is due to an unprecedented boom in domestic oil production.
Trump has focused on energy issues since the campaign as part of his overall pledge to help American workers.
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He saw regulations as choking out industries like coal and oil and thus hurting many domestic workers in the process.
The president specifically took aim at former President Barack Obama — who ushered in more strict energy sector rules, such as his Clean Power Plan.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first proposed the plan as a means of combating anthropogenic climate change in June 2014. The Trump administration has argued the initiative could cost up to $39 billion a year and increase electricity prices in 41 states by at least 10 percent.
It also noted the plan would cause coal production to fall by 242 million tons.
Trump began working to reduce energy sector regulations soon after becoming president, with an executive order in March 2017. The order called on agencies to promote the clean and safe development of energy in a way that did not sacrifice jobs.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies met in Vienna, Italy, to decide whether to cut output and support prices on December 7.
It also called for agencies to review existing regulations and orders to see how effective they’ve been. It called for the reduction of climate-related rules as well.
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The article published by Bloomberg does warn that the oil exporting achievement could be misleading, since the country is still exposed to global prices.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies met in Vienna, Italy, to decide whether to cut output and support prices on December 7.
The group decided to reduce crude oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day for the next six months to try to influence higher oil prices, United Press International reported.
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