An American flag hangs at the Venture Global Plaquemines LNG plant while under construction in Port Sulphur, Louisiana. The US is now producing more oil and gas than any country in history. Bryan Tarnowski/Bloomberg via Getty Images Umair Irfan is a correspondent at Vox writing about climate change, Covid-19, and energy policy. Irfan is also a regular contributor to the radio program Science Friday. Prior to Vox, he was a reporter for ClimateWire at E&E News. As the name suggests, global warming is a global issue that effectively requires every country to act to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Any ton of carbon dioxide produced anywhere adds to warming globally, while any ton reduced anywhere has the same effect in reverse. That’s why the most efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions broadly is through policies that encourage the cheapest clean technology, wherever it comes from. But the leading presidential candidates of both major American political parties are increasingly pushing for the US to develop all forms of energy — oil and natural gas included — and shield its own clean tech sector, even at the expense of its allies and its own climate goals. It’s little surprise that former President Donald Trump, a skeptic at best about climate change, has repeatedly boasted about his track records in boosting domestic energy production, including fossil fuels, and has pledged to impose more tariffs on Chinese goods like solar panels if he becomes president again. But Vice President Kamala Harris has also been hyping an America First energy policy. While the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Joe Biden represents the single-largest US investment to address climate change, his vice president has been taking credit for how it expanded oil and gas development. “I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation […]