CLEVELAND— Harold Hamm, CEO of Oklahoma City-based Continental Resources told GOP convention delegates that Donald Trump if elected would ground the high-flying U.S. energy department.
Hamm, an Enid High School graduate and Trump’s informal adviser on energy policy, pioneered the shale boom in the Bakken Oil Field of Montana and North Dakota using horizontal drilled wells and hydraulic fracturing.
Hamm said the Obama administration has imposed limits on the continued economic growth of the nation’s oil and gas industry that has doubled production in the past eight years.
“We do not need to be funding the nations that are funding terrorism. And that is what we are doing unless we produce more here and certainly that is what we need to be doing,” the Continental Resources CEO said.
The Oklahoma delegation in Cleveland spoke highly of Hamm’s address, seeing the importance of the energy sector to the economy of the Sooner state, as well as the nation.
Michael Stopp, a delegate from Tahlequah and the campaign chairman for U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin, said in a text message: “Energy is a large part of Oklahoma’s economy.
“Reviving Oklahoma’s and America’s energy sector is vital to our economic growth and life,” Stopp said.
Pam Pollard, Oklahoma Republican Party Chairwoman echoed those sentiments about the vital place Oklahoma, as well as the reform of shale in energy, that Hamm has brought in the United States.
“Mr. Hamm brought a critical focus on energy to the Republican National Convention. Oklahoma has the opportunity to lead the world in energy innovation. The shale revolution has moved America from energy scarcity to abundance— from energy dependence to independence. All though free market innovation,” Pollard said.
Hamm’s speech preceded a one by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who fought a losing battle for the GOP nomination. Delegates harshly booed Cruz after he failed to endorse Trump during the speech.
Earlier Wednesday during an appearance on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” Hamm said he believes that Trump if elected would ensure the country developed more oil and gas.
“There is a huge contrast between the two candidates ― one would eliminate all fossil fuels and the other sees the need for crude oil development and oil and gas in America,” he said.
Hamm said he believes that Trump would repeal some of the “punitive” regulations that have been imposed by the Obama administration while the industry has been dramatically boosting U.S. production.
“While we’ve been doing this the last seven or eight years — doubling U.S. production — we’ve had an onslaught, a tsunami if you will, of punitive regulations designed to put us out of business,” he said
The Obama administration is pushing a Clean Power plan to combat climate change. Opponents have said it would all but kill the U.S. coal industry. At the same time it has pushed through measures regulating hydraulic fracturing on government land and the release of methane from new and modified wells, citing concerns about environmental, health and safety risks.
Hamm said that the oil and gas industry is suffering “death by a thousand cuts” because of those regulations that likely would only get worse if Hillary Clinton were elected.
If the U.S. produces more oil, then it won’t have to rely on countries that are connected with terrorism, Hamm said.
“Where is the terrorism coming from? The nations over there that we have been funding for 50 years by buying their crude oil,” Hamm said.