--- title: Donald Trump: Bismarck Energy Speech Contains Many Promises description: Donald Trump promised to scale back Obama's environmental regulations and called for a hastening of the development of U.S. energy resources canonical: https://time.com/4349309/donald-trump-bismarck-energy-speech/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-26T21:01:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:02.524Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Promises to Cut Regulation on 'Phony' Environmental Issues og:description: "Political activists with extreme agendas will no longer write the rules" og:url: https://time.com/4349309/donald-trump-bismarck-energy-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4ac42d3c8f2f1f4/6988953cf887dc36d7e960c1/donald-trump-energy-speech-bismarck.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: donald trump energy speech bismarck og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Promises to Cut Regulation on 'Phony' Environmental Issues twitter:description: "Political activists with extreme agendas will no longer write the rules" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4ac42d3c8f2f1f4/6988953cf887dc36d7e960c1/donald-trump-energy-speech-bismarck.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Promises to Cut Regulation on 'Phony' Environmental Issues > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Trump Speaks About Winning Delegates [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Speaks About Winning Delegates](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pqOAhu2U.m3u8) (0:51)  _Published 2016-05-26. Donald Trump thanked the North Dakota delegates who recently pledged to support him at the Republican National Convention to give him the number he needs to clinch the nomination._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent May 26, 2016 9:01 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks on energy policy on May 26, 2016 in Bismarck, North Dakota. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks on energy policy on May 26, 2016 in Bismarck, North Dakota.Spencer Platt—Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent May 26, 2016 9:01 PM UTC Donald Trump promised Thursday to scale back President Obama’s environmental regulations and called for faster development of U.S. energy resources in his most sweeping remarks on energy policy since entering the presidential race. “The government should not pick winners and losers, instead it should remove obstacles to exploration,” the presumptive GOP nominee told attendees of an oil industry conference in North Dakota. The state has been the center of the nation’s fracking boom for nearly a decade. “Political activists with extreme agendas will no longer write the rules.” The speech included a laundry list of commitments to radically change the trajectory of federal energy and environmental policy. Trump pledged to save the coal industry from decline at the hands of President Obama’s [Clean Power Plan](http://time.com/3981535/white-house-clean-power-plan/). He promised that his policies would allow the U.S. to be completely energy independent. He said he would “cancel” the [Paris Agreement](http://time.com/4146764/paris-agreement-climate-cop-21/) to address climate change that was adopted last year by more than 190 countries and stop funding of any international efforts to address global warming. A Trump administration would end “totalitarian taxes” he says have been levied by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But Trump offered few details to behind any of his proposals, some of which defy common understandings of the workings of the energy industry. His promise to save coal, for instance, runs counter to market forces that have made the energy source increasingly unfeasible. Coal has become more expensive as an energy source in comparison to natural gas. Without the giant subsidies Trump says he loathes, a clear path to propping up the coal industry remains unclear. And, in a world absent of regulation, Trump also promised to address “real environmental challenges” like providing clean air and clean water while not dealing with “phony” issues. “The market forces are going to be what they are,” Trump said at a press conference before the event when asked about coal. “To me a market force is a beautiful force.” Trump devoted little time to discussing the science of change climate directly, but his positions suggest that he gives little credence to the overwhelming majority of climate scientists who agree that top emitters must act urgently to address global warming. President Obama has made the issue a priority despite widespread denial of climate science from the American right. The end of U.S. regulation addressing climate change would yield the Paris Agreement essentially worthless and significantly undermine global climate action. The prospect of a Trump presidency has already unsettled foreign leaders who have prioritized addressing climate change. “If a climate change denier was to be elected, it would threaten dramatically global action against climate disruption,” said French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who led the Paris climate conference in December, [earlier this month](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/04/donald-trumps-election-will-derail-paris-climate-deal-warns-its-architect). “We must not think that everything is settled.” Trump’s speech should offer some assurances to oil and gas industry that he would support their interests as president. Oil executives have been skeptical of Trump’s candidacy since he emerged at the GOP frontrunner. The candidates’s [support for ethanol](http://time.com/4186455/iowa-caucus-ted-cruz-ethanol/) as an alternative to oil and his [dismissal](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/oil-industry-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-choice-220947) of the industry as a “special interest” drew derision from many energy leaders. The new positions on energy follow conversations with Harold Hamm, an oil and gas billionaire who also served as energy advisor to Mitt Romney in 2012, and North Dakota GOP Congressman Kevin Cramer. Both praised Trump in speeches at Thursday’s event. Trump, known for his off-the-cuff style, used a teleprompter throughout his energy speech, though at moments seemed to go off script when taunting Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and President Obama. “Hillary Clinton will unleash the EPA to control every aspect of our lives,” and every aspect of energy,” he said. “They’ll make it impossible for the workers.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4349309/donald-trump-bismarck-energy-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4349309/donald-trump-bismarck-energy-speech/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Promises to Cut Regulation on 'Phony' Environmental Issues","datePublished":"2016-05-26T21:01:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:42:02.524Z","description":"\"Political activists with extreme agendas will no longer write the rules\"","url":"https://time.com/4349309/donald-trump-bismarck-energy-speech/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Environment","energy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4ac42d3c8f2f1f4/6988953cf887dc36d7e960c1/donald-trump-energy-speech-bismarck.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4ac42d3c8f2f1f4/6988953cf887dc36d7e960c1/donald-trump-energy-speech-bismarck.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald trump energy speech bismarck","caption":"donald trump energy speech bismarck","creditText":"Spencer Platt—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4349309/donald-trump-bismarck-energy-speech/","name":"Donald Trump Promises to Cut Regulation on 'Phony' Environmental Issues"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump Speaks About Winning Delegates","description":"Donald Trump thanked the North Dakota delegates who recently pledged to support him at the Republican National Convention to give him the number he needs to clinch the nomination.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pqOAhu2U/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-05-26T19:52:16.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pqOAhu2U.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4349309/donald-trump-bismarck-energy-speech/","duration":"PT51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4349309/donald-trump-bismarck-energy-speech/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```