Trump advisers push to target OPEC
WILLISTON, North Dakota, May 25, (RTRS): Two energy advisers to Donald Trump want him to call out members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for driving down world oil prices when he delivers a major energy policy speech this week.
The advisers, who said they had been asked by Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to contribute ideas for the speech, told Reuters they had also suggested he mention cuts to regulations and a streamlining of the federal tax code to make US energy companies more competitive.
The advisers, US Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and another who asked not to be identified, said they had urged Trump to criticize the OPEC cartel for contributing to a crash in world oil prices by producing full throttle, a factor that has helped push many US oil companies into bankruptcy.
“We have to look at the global playing field and see which of our partners — OPEC, Iran, Russia — are playing fair in the global marketplace,” Cramer said about the advice he had been giving Trump.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has not shied from targeting OPEC’s top producer, Saudi Arabia, in the past. He has said the United States should consider halting oil purchases from the kingdom if it does not provide troops to fight Islamic
State militants who control swaths of Syria and Iraq.
Trump’s speech on Thursday at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in North Dakota, the heart of US drilling country that has been hard hit by the oil price slump, may reveal for the first time how he will approach the energy sector if elected.
A spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign declined requests for comment and it was unclear whether Trump would use any the ideas provided by the advisers.
Trump has so far been mostly mute on details of his energy policy. He has dismissed climate change as a hoax, promised to renegotiate the UN global climate accord, and vowed a revival in the US coal industry, which has been hobbled by low prices and rules that limit pollution emissions.
Environmental advocates and Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, have criticized his stance for underplaying the economic and social risks of climate change.