GOP: Trump will talk more about energy

Donald Trump will go in to further depth about his energy and environment positions as the campaign carries on, the Republican Party’s top spokesman said Tuesday.

Sean Spicer, communications director for the Republican National Committee, said the presumptive GOP presidential nominee doesn’t like talking about policy matters at his rallies.

{mosads}Trump is likely to outline more specific energy positions in briefings and other means, he said.

“I think you might see briefings and policy papers and things put on websites, but I’m not sure that a lot of the discourse is going to delve into deep policy issues,” Spicer said at an American Petroleum Institute event.

“He is more of a populist speaker than getting to give wonky speeches at Brookings or Heritage,” he added. “That’s just not his thing. I think you might see a discussion of the issues, but it’s not going to be in the standard forums we’ve seen.”

Trump has mostly shied away from delving into deep public policy matters throughout his campaign, with some exceptions.

His largest foray into energy policy came last month in a detailed, scripted speech at an oil industry event in North Dakota.

He used it to outline an “American First” energy agenda that aligns generally with Republican orthodoxy, including expanding oil, gas and coal development, reversing President Obama’s environmental agenda and reducing dependence on foreign energy sources.

Trump’s speech was criticized by analysts for numerous reasons, including his pledges to increase both coal and natural gas production, despite the fact that they compete directly. His promise to bring back the coal industry was also criticized as unlikely.

Spicer said that the North Dakota speech is probably not the end of Trump’s energy platform and that he’s likely to expand on environmental policies as well.

“I think Trump is going to lay out a lot more about where he wants to go with the environment,” Spicer said. “But that’s for him go into more with.”

Trump promised in the speech to focus his environmental policy on clean air and water while undoing all of Obama’s environmental regulations and pulling out of last year’s Paris climate agreement.

Spicer said that although Trump doesn’t believe in the science of climate change or policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the country could still cut emissions under a Trump presidency.

“I think you can do responsible things. There are things that we could be doing with clean technology that’s just good for business,” he said. “And so we don’t necessarily need to debate the science piece of it.”