Trump’s legal battles kept him from the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference

By Brian Zinchuk

BISMARCK, ND – Two weeks ago, former President Donald Trump was supposed to be somewhere other than sitting in a New York courtroom, facing charges from events preceding his election to president in 2016. No, Trump was supposed to be on a stage, in Bismarck, North Dakota, addressing the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference on May 16.

Everything was shaping up along those lines, looking conspicuously similar to how they looked in 2016. North Dakota Petroleum Council president Ron Ness confirmed to Pipeline Online that indeed back in October they had booked the former president to speak the event on May 16.

Back in May, 2014, Trump’s appearance coincided with the day he locked up the Republican nomination for the November election. As such, there was a heavy media presence in Bismarck, with broad, live coverage. And Trump chose North Dakota as the venue to speak about his energy policy.

But of particular interest to Canada, he was asked by this reporter if he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline and invite TransCanada to build it. He said he would, but he “wanted a piece.”

However, that pipeline got tied up in a legal morass and never did get built in the US, even though the Alberta portion was built (funded by that province’s government). Incoming President Joe Biden signed an executive order killing the project within minutes of being sworn into office in 2021.

Step forward eight years to 2024, as numerous court cases, conspicuously delayed until the election year, have kept Trump off the campaign trail. Instead of packed auditorium with and anticipated 10,000 supporters, All the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference got was a video message. It was introduced by Harold Hamm, one of the most significant oilmen working in North Dakota, and a friend of Trump’s. Hamm said he had dinner with Trump just a few days before, and trump “really wished he could be here.”

Here’s Trump’s address, verbatim:

Hello, North Dakota in a very special thanks to the great Harold Hamm, along with Governor Doug Burgum, Senators Kevin Kramer and John Hoeven. It’s an honor to speak with the men and women who are on the frontlines of driving the American energy dominance that we so much want. We have to have it. And we had it just four years ago. We were dominant.

As you know, under my leadership, United States became the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world. I approved the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipelines. They got done and they were all set. Now unfortunately, Dakota went well, but the Keystone, Biden ended immediately. And those workers should fire –  40,000 of them, maybe 48,000 –  they should fire the head of their union, who approved and went to Biden and endorsed him, because he withdrew, and what he did, he withdrew and took that pipeline and ended it almost in his first week in office.

So why would a union do that to its members? Get rid of that guy!

I withdrew from the disastrous Paris Climate Accord. We slashed approval times for pipelines and other energy infrastructures at levels that they’ve never seen before. I open ANWR for Energy Development, which Republicans have been trying to do for 40 years. It’s the largest energy source potentially anywhere in the world, including Saudi Arabia and Russia. And they went out and in their the first week, they ended it. But we’ll get it going again.

If we had continued on the path of the Trump administration, hundreds of millions more barrels of oil would have been pumped, and our economy would be much, much stronger than it is today. We would have been in a whole different place, and we wouldn’t have had inflation.

Under crooked Joe Biden, the American energy industry is under siege. It’s under crisis. Crooked Joe Biden has made clear that he wants to abolish your industry, and with it, destroy our economy and send us into a new dark age of blackouts, poverty and deindustrialization.

Joe Biden re-entered the horrible Paris Accord, so bad for our country, massively raise taxes on energy producers. He’s finalizing power plant regulations that will demolish oil, gas and coal-fired power plants. And all over the nation, they’re going to be closing up.

Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline and his electric vehicle mandate. One of the great disasters of all time, is an attempt to ban gasoline powered cars and trucks with electric and they don’t go far, and they cost too much and they’re all going to be made in China.

Biden’s plans will obliterate the North Dakota petroleum industry and your great governor knows that better than anybody, saying gas and electricity costs soaring and turning America into an absolute third world country. And that’s what’s happening right now.

Every American will be poorer unless we remember this: we’ve got to win this election and we’re not going to have a country anymore.

But if Biden does win, all of those oil projects, and right now, he let go, because oil went up so much after he became he closed down a lot of leases was that a lot of everything. The day he got in, he’s ending it all. He’s letting it go right now, because he doesn’t want the prices to go up more than they already have, which is at least 50 per cent. But if he ever became president, it all comes to an end, everyone in that room, everyone in that industry is going to be out of business.

When I’m president oil and gas workers of America will once again have a true friend and an ally of the Oval Office, just as you had four years ago. On day one, I will cancel the electric vehicle mandate. We will end Joe Biden war on American energy and the United States will unleash its vast resources to unlock the American Dream for millions and millions of our people. With your support, we will make America great again, and we will do it quickly. Thank you once again and everyone there today. I really appreciate all of your support, keep up the great work and God bless you all.