Trump’s concrete energy cost-cutting plan versus Kamala Harris’ vague approach

The American people deserve better than a “vibes” candidate, which Kamala Harris and her loyal media boosters are hoping will be sufficient to propel her to victory.

Vibes do not undergird the economy, nor do they power our way of life: Energy does, and when it comes to policies impacting energy, the differences between Harris and former President Donald Trump are stark.

Trump is promising not only to unleash American energy through our natural resources, but also to embrace real technologies that will pay power dividends in the future.

In Michigan on Thursday, Trump reiterated his plans to lower electricity costs and unleash American energy by increasing oil and gas drilling and cutting Washington, DC, red tape.

While these are important, Trump’s commitment to green-light more pipelines and new power plants is paramount.

Consider that 70% of our country’s transmission lines are now over 25 years old, with many nearing the end of their lifecycle.

Trump also proposed new energy innovation with “hundreds” of small modular nuclear reactors that will fill a looming need.

Electricity-load-growth forecasts are up 81%, driven in part by power needs for artificial intelligence and data centers, which will drive the need for nearly 5% more power in the next five years.

Our cities and homes will need much more energy in the future — and power production that doesn’t work when the sun sets are not going to cut it.

Trump sees the changing landscape of our energy needs and is looking to innovate electric production, not leave it to the whims of the wind and the sun through generation methods that are expensive, intermittent and predominantly made in communist China.

Micro-nuclear, expanded drilling and infrastructure overhauls are concrete policy positions, and as such worthy of debate and scrutiny so the American people can make informed decisions.

The economy is the No. 1 issue voters care about, and no surprise: Life has become very expensive in the past few years.

Utility bills are 30% higher since the Harris-Biden administration took office.

Americans’ savings have fallen, and their credit card debt has risen to its all-time high, a staggering $1.1 trillion.

Gas prices average $3.54, yet voters remember gas averaging $2.57 per gallon under Trump.

Energy is at the heart of all this.

This election is not about competing visions, but contrasting records.

As a sitting vice president and former commander-in-chief, both candidates have paper trails.

Trump has laid out a plan with one specific goal: lower electricity and energy prices. Harris has promised to form a task force to “take on” price-gouging.

One is policy.

The other, vibes.

The best indicator of future activity is past performance.

Trump, on his second day as president in 2017, authorized the Keystone XL pipeline, knowing that America needed the additional crude and would benefit financially from the 850,000 barrels it would bring us every year.

Thousands of people were hired on to the project.

Faster than Trump authorized the pipeline, on their very first day in office, Biden-Harris canceled it.

Thousands of pipeline workers lost their jobs.

No tax revenue, no additional crude, billions of dollars lost.

That is a “vibes” decision, and what we can expect from a Harris administration.

Biden and Harris seem to bend over backward in generosity for certain constituencies.

There have been billions in humanitarian aid for Palestinians, “debt forgiveness” for college students, free cell phones and housing for illegal migrants.

For Keystone Pipeline workers, there was only a pink slip — just to spite Donald Trump.

Safe to say, energy workers are not picking up on Harris’ “vibes.”

Everything old is new again.

What Harris calls “vibes,” the Beach Boys called “Good Vibrations” back in 1967.

In our national divisiveness, with political turmoil and personal financial hardship, we could all use some good feelings, but that won’t fix the current mess.

We need sound policy decisions, and the political will to implement them.

We need DC bureaucracies to get out of the way and let the energy workers do their job.

Trump on Thursday promised that “our long economic nightmare will soon be over” — and America’s energy workers are ready.

Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs.