Americas News
Trump's "Unleashing" of U.S. Shale Will Result In Energy Independence by 2022: Hamm
Harold Hamm, the billionaire pioneer of the U.S. shale boom and top energy advisor to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has told CNBC that Trump‘s plan to get rid of a “tsunami of regulations” imposed on the energy industry by president Barack Obama will lead to Americans achieving energy independence by 2022.
Speaking on Squawk on the Street on Friday, Hamm, who is also chairman and CEO of Continental Resources, conceded he originally thought independence could be reached by 2020, but the collapse in oil prices means this goal has “probably been delayed by a couple of years.”
Trump has promised to unleash the full power of fossil fuels and warned that Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton's attempts to restrict fracking would leave the U.S. "begging" for Middle East oil.
Hamm dismissed Clinton’s proposed energy strategy as “silly, and it certainly is: we’re going to put 500 million solar panels on everybody’s house? Now guess who makes these: China makes these.
“All those jobs are going to go overseas.”
Hamm is referring to Clinton’s bid to build half a billion solar panels that would generate 120 gigawatts of solar by the end of her first term in office - which the U.S. Institute for Energy Research says could end up being a $206 billion handout to China: “Clinton’s solar plan is a plan to import billions of dollars of solar panels, even though electricity demand is not growing to necessitate this kind of new electricity generating construction,” it stated in a report.
Like Trump, Hamm is not afraid of controversy: he made headlines last month by urging Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to follow through on their promises to curb oil production in order to raise prices - a plea that was perceived by many as unorthodox, given that Americans still closely associate OPEC with the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970s.
He told reporters, “U.S. producers have cut back, we’ve done our part. It would finally make sense for a freeze in production to be implemented.”
When CNBC asked Hamm why Trump is not receiving stronger support from the U.S. fossil fuel industry, Hamm countered that "Donald Trump is receiving good support from this industry."
As for the mainstream media perception that Trump has all but scuttled his chances of winning the presidential election, Hamm replied, "The polls have not told the entire story here: there's a lot to be said for what's going on with this Trump movement across the country today"; he also mentioned the United Kingdom's recent and surprising Brexit vote as an example of what could happen in the U.S. in November.
Earlier this year, Trump said if elected he would consider halting oil purchases from Saudi Arabia and any other Arab states that are unwilling to contribute to the battle against ISIS and other terrorist organizations.
