HUNTE: President-Elect Donald Trump made some major energy promises while on the campaign trail, but the changing economics of energy might make the realities of coming through on those pledges much more complex. CNN’s Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir has more.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: Frack, frack, frack and drill, drill, drill. Drill, baby, drill.
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the trail —
TRUMP: We’re going to frack, frack, frack.
WEIR (voice-over): — Donald Trump made some big energy promises.
TRUMP: Your energy bill, within 12 months, will be cut in half, and that’s my pledge all over the country.
WEIR: What’s the reality of that, as he gets ready to take office?
RYAN KELLOGG, PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY AND DEPUTY DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: The reality is that consumers, energy bills, producers, production volumes, they depend much more on the whims of the global marketplace than what any single president can do.
WEIR (voice-over): And the U.S. is already producing more fossil fuel for that market than any nation in history. So, drilling on more federal land, experts say, would not affect gas prices.
KELLOGG: Private land and shale is really where the action is. Federal land, you can tinker with things on the margin, maybe get a couple additional 100,000 barrels a day. You’re not going to double U.S. production or increase it by even 25 percent.
WEIR (voice-over): And remember when the pandemic and OPEC caused oil prices to crash? It was good for consumers, but horrible for U.S. oil companies. So, Trump asked Russia and Saudi Arabia to stop drilling so prices would go up.