Trump campaign vs. Trump administration: on Energy & Oil

Betsy DeVos: Chair of Windquest Group to invest in clean energy

Donald Trump: Revive the coal industry; end efforts to curb carbon

Trump made clear that the United States had no intention of meeting the commitments that his predecessor had made to curb planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution, turning denials of climate change into national policy. Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency to start the complex and lengthy legal process of withdrawing and rewriting the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have closed hundreds of coal-fired power plants, frozen construction of new plants and replaced them with vast new wind and solar farms.

"C'mon, fellas. You know what this is? You know what this says?" Trump said to the miners. "You're going back to work."

Donald Trump: Represent Pittsburgh, not Paris: Coal over climate agreement

Short Answer: Yes, mines are opening, including a new one in Pennsylvania.

Long answer: That doesn't reverse the overall decline of the coal mining industry from its glory days. The mines that are opening produce a special kind of coal used in steelmaking and are opening largely because of events unrelated to federal policy, experts say. The market for the kind of coal used in electricity--the biggest use for coal--remains down relative to where it was several years ago. In other words, the industry has rebounded slightly after years of layoffs and closures caused mainly by competition from cheap natural gas.

Donald Trump: Climate change isn't a hoax, but don't spend trillions on it

Trump called climate change a hoax in November 2012 stating, "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." He later said he was joking about the Chinese connection, but in years since continued to call global warming a hoax.

As far as climate "changing back," temperature records kept by NASA show that the world hasn't had a cooler-than-average year since 1976 or a cooler-than-normal month since 1985.

Donald Trump: Expand sales of corn ethanol year-round to 15%

Trump, a vocal supporter of corn ethanol, will order EPA to allow year-round sales of gasoline with 15% ethanol content, an increase over the 10% blends that are sold at most gas stations around the nation. The sale of the blends, known as "E15," is currently prohibited during the summer months in several states because of Clean Air Act restrictions, and corn growers have long sought to expand sales of the higher concentrations.

Trump has previously called for increased sales of ethanol, which consumes about 40% of the US corn crop. He strongly backed the biofuel during the 2016 campaign, a stance that appealed to Midwestern farmers, but which the oil industry staunchly opposed.

Pope Francis: Future of humanity is at stake with climate change

Rick Perry: Energy dominance requires more exports of coal, oil & gas

The next step, according to Perry, is to begin working on the pipelines and other infrastructure necessary to get the oil to market. "It's essential that America build the infrastructure to deliver this record supply," he said. The Energy Information Administration recently announced that the US "is now the largest crude oil producer in the world."

Perry explained that it is his job to promote the president's "energy dominance" agenda, including increasing US exports of oil, coal, natural gas, and advanced energy technologies. Exports "are up across the board, whether it's coal, oil, natural gas," Perry said. "And I think we are just getting started."

Ryan Zinke: Climate is changing; Man is an influence but what can we do?

Scott Pruitt: Grant oil industry waivers to ignore gasohol mandate

Trump has personally sought to mediate the dispute, which has pitted ethanol backers against [oil states who asked to] grant concessions to the oil industry. The oil industry had benefited from the more than two dozen waivers that former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt granted to refineries that allowed them to ignore the mandate that they blend the corn-based fuel with gasoline. But that angered farm groups, who said it reduced the requirement for ethanol by billions of gallons.