What Donald Trump did for hydrocarbons

AS LEADERS IN Europe and China push their countries towards clean energy, Donald Trump is proud to tug in the opposite direction. In 2016 he promised to save American coal. In 2020 he has championed “energy dominance” and cast himself as fracking’s last defence against a looming leftist assault. Indeed, Mr Trump would seem to be responsible for a golden age for carbon-emitters. During his presidency America has become the world’s largest producer of crude oil, a big shift for a country that has fretted over energy security for decades. Yet America’s oil boom is subsiding and coal-fired power in decline.

That is despite Mr Trump’s best efforts. “We will never again be reliant on hostile foreign suppliers,” the president declared in July. “And we will defend America’s newfound energy independence.”