I saw a Trump interview by Huckabee on Fox this past weekend. Trump made a lot of sense. He said that whenever we catch China subsidising their industry to make an American industry either go out of business or move to China, we should slap a 25% tarriff on that particular product. He said either China will give in and quit and/or we get our industry back with the tarriffs on their goods. Then he said if we allow drilling everywhere, onshore, offshore, Alaska, etc, Opec will give in and lower the price of fuel to compete or make sales. This would also supply jobs. He also said he had a friend who bought a small corporate jet made in Brazil. He said he wanted to buy American, but the tax credits were too great to turn down. More jobs lost to our stupid trade policies. He said he would renegotiate our trade agreements, and if they killed American jobs, he would scrap the deal.
For what it is worth, Obama is using the EPA to shut down about 10% of the coal fired power plants (jobs lost) and to stop onshore drilling on government property (jobs lost) and/or restricting or holding up permits on private property (more jobs lost). I work in the natural gas industry on pipeline design. We once only had to get an EPA permit if we disturbed over 4 acres (width of area disturbed by length) of a particular pipeline. Now it is one acre. More paperwork, more delays. Permitting takes about a month to approve. 36 pages, gps readings, copies of USGS maps of area, etc, etc. This is required even if we install a main on an existing highway, in a subdivision, not just cross country.
Then we have to follow OSHA rules during construction. Then we also have to install the main to the Department of Transportation office of pipeline safety rules and regulations. More paperwork.
If we work on state highways, county roads, or city streets, more permits and paperwork.
Government rules and regulatons slow down, and squash some projects. EPA rules, government permitting delays or rejections is causing about a 1-2% drop in employment. If they got of of the way, and go back to rules about 10-20 years ago, we can begin to turn this country around and cut off the imported oil.