Rick Perry: 'The United States Is Not Just Exporting Energy. We’re Exporting Freedom.'
Davos, Switzerland, will play host to a much-anticipated visit from President Donald Trump on Friday when he is slated to outline his “America First” agenda to attendees at the World Economic Forum.
The speech has already garnered much attention and protests from anti-Trump demonstrators, but U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry chalks the backlash up to citizens not having an understanding of the true meaning behind Trump’s “America First” message.
Speaking with Fox Business‘ Maria Bartiromo on her show “Mornings with Maria,” Perry stated that the concept is “really simple from my perspective.”
“This is about America being competitive around the globe,” he said. “When folks are thinking about where you want to buy your energy from or where you want that next load of LNG (liquefied natural gas) to come from, we want you to think about America, first.”
“In 2005 we were beside ourselves if you will, and behind,” Perry added.
However, the secretary of energy added that “by the grace of God and some technology and a guy by the name of George Mitchell from Texas, hydraulic fracturing came into play in a really big way.”
He noted that the advent of fracking led to a never-before-seen oil and gas “revolution” in the United States.
“We’re now the No. 1 oil and gas producing nation on the face of the earth. I mean who would have thought that a decade ago,” he said.
Trump’s “America First” strategy, as argued by Perry, has enabled U.S. allies to have “freedom” to choose where they receive their energy.
“We are exporting to our allies in Europe, the opportunity to truly have a choice on where you buy your energy from and that kind of freedom is priceless,” he said.
The Hill reported in December that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Lande Management was set to publish its final repeal of Obama-era regulations placed on hydraulic fracturing.
“This final rule is needed to prevent the unnecessarily burdensome and unjustified administrative requirements and compliance costs of the 2015 rule from encumbering oil and gas development on federal and Indian lands,” the BLM stated.
In early January, it was reported that the Department of Energy pumped $30 million into exploring new fracking technology.
As noted by The Daily Caller News Foundation, the funds targeted the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale in Texas and the Huron Shale, which combined span four states into the Appalachian.
In a statement, the DOE stated that exploring the new technology will “strengthen America’s energy dominance, protect air and water quality, position the nation as a global leader in unconventional oil and natural gas (UOG) resource development technologies, and ensure the maximum value of the nation’s resource endowment is realized.”
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