Trump’s Energy Dominance Dream Submits to Reality
Frackers’ call for a bailout exposes the weakness of this psychological balm.
President Donald Trump speaks during the 9th Shale Insight Conference on October 23, 2019, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Photographer: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
One of the more notable ideas to float up last week — or, as I like to call it, my year indoors — was a federal bailout of some sort for U.S. oil and gas producers. Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources Inc. and sometime energy adviser to the president, called on the Trump Administration to help domestic frackers fight off low-priced barrels flooding in from Russia and Saudi Arabia even as coronavirus slams demand.
Continental, which once again enters a crash bracingly unhedged, styles itself “America’s oil champion.” Wildly aspirational as that is, it fits the moment. Because Hamm’s call for aid lays bare the hollowness of that recent addition to the American dream: “energy dominance.”