Media calls Trump VP pick Vance ‘climate skeptic,’ supporters say he’ll champion affordable energy

As soon as former President Donald Trump chose J.D. Vance as his running mate, the legacy media began digging up statements the Ohio Republican senator had made concerning energy and climate. 

The New York Times Monday called Vance an “oil booster” and “doubter of human-caused climate change.” Bloomberg reported that Vance has grown more critical of wind and solar even as Ohio “embraced” the technology. 

While left-leaning media presented Vance’s support for the energy source that supplies the bulk of the world’s energy as problematic, others say Trump’s decision reflects his own positions on energy, which will be favorable to energy costs for the consumer and the economy as a whole. 

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Trump promised to ramp up U.S. domestic oil production and remove regulatory barriers that would impede that goal. He said that Americans need lower energy costs, and the U.S. is capable of producing enough to make that happen.

"We have more liquid gold than anybody," Trump said. He also said that wind energy is too expensive.

Steve Milloy, a senior legal fellow with the Energy and Environmental Legal Institute and publisher of “JunkScience.com,” told Just the News that Vance's positions align well with Trump's goals, and this will benefit middle class America.

“I think he’s [Vance] going to do great. I think he’s going to be all for working people. And if you’re not for working people, you’re not for greens,” Steve Milloy, a senior legal fellow with the Energy and Environmental Legal Institute and publisher of “JunkScience.com,” told Just the News.

Evolving positions

Prior to 2021, Vance was fairly quiet on the issue of climate change and renewable energy. 

Two years before he ran successfully for the Senate, Vance said in a speech at Ohio State University that “we have a climate problem in our society.” He also said that natural gas isn’t “going to take us to a clean energy future.” 

Since then, his position has shifted. He posted no statements concerning energy or climate change on his X account prior to 2021, but then in July 2021, he declared that “energy independence is critical to U.S. prosperity and national security” and said he was committed to supporting legislation to restore it. 

In 2022, he told the American Leadership Forum that he was skeptical of the idea that climate change is caused purely by humans. The statement is scientifically correct, as few scientists believe that absent carbon dioxide emissions, the climate would enter a static state. Such a changeless climate has never existed. 

“It’s been changing, as others pointed out, it’s been changing for millennia,” Mr. Vance said at the forum. He also asked why environmentalists “send a ton of our jobs to China, and then manufacture these ridiculously ugly windmills all over Ohio farms that don’t produce enough electricity to run a cellphone on?” 

The same year, he stated on the “Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” that he agreed that climate change is not causing a crisis.

During a debate in 2022 in his bid for the senate, Vance criticized his Democratic opponent Tim Ryan for supporting a ban on hydraulic fracking during Ryan’s previous presidential run. Ryan denied he had taken that position. 

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a well completion technique. The controversial technology has unleashed massive amounts of oil and gas in the U.S. 

Throughout the campaign, Vance was critical of Ryan’s energy policies. Commenting on an article about Ryan’s support for eliminating coal, Vance said on X that Ryan’s “war on American energy would destroy the middle class" in Ohio. 

In 2023, Vance wrote an op-ed in The Marietta Times praising fracking technology for its economic benefits on the state of Ohio. 

“I believe that right now is the time to double down on the Ohio energy industry. In order to maximize output in the Utica Shale, oil and gas producers require new infrastructure – pipelines and refineries, large and small. We need less red tape and fewer restrictions from the federal government,” Vance wrote. 

In 2022, Vance stood in front of a uranium enrichment facility, praising nuclear energy for being “the future energy source for this county.” He said the nuclear industry could provide good jobs and affordable, reliable energy for the U.S. 

This past May, on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Vance said that Europe has become weaker because it’s deindustrializing, something that’s well documented. 

“Why have they deindustrialized? Because they've pursued a green energy agenda following the lead of the Biden administration and that necessarily empowers China and Russia. We need to acknowledge that it's our decisions that are making these countries stronger,” Vance said. 

Vance has also been critical of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), arguing that it hurts working class Americans. In August, told Fox Business’ Stuart Varney that the IRA subsidizes “rich people to buy electric vehicles at the expense of the Ohio automotive industry. It’s going to put a lot of Ohioans out of work.”

Passing the torch

Tim Stewart, president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, told Just the News that Trump’s pick was good for the industry. 

“Senator Vance comes from a state with a rich legacy of oil and gas production dating back to 1860 when the first commercial production began. He knows how much our industry contributes to Ohio, and he has always had our back. His public statements and positions have consistently reflected that,” Stewart said. 

Milloy said that Vance, who is 39, will bring some appeal from younger voters. “Passing the torch to younger generations is smart,” he said. 

He said, should Trump win reelection, it’s likely that the EPA will be frozen as it was during the first Trump administration, and this will keep the agency from getting in the way of economic development. 

“I think he’s [Vance] got good instincts, and he’s a smart guy,” the Energy and Environmental Legal Institute's  Milloy said. 

Stewart said that Vance will speak up for the American families who have been crushed under the weight of rising energy costs after four years of Biden’s energy policies. 

“He knows we need to produce more of everything if we want to help these families claw their way back out of energy poverty. No family should have to choose between putting food on the table or gas in the car,” Stewart said. 

He said this support for affordable energy is why the New York Times calls Vance a climate skeptic. 

“I say God bless him. We are behind him 100%,” Stewart said.