FactChecking Trump’s Energy Boasts

At a meeting on hurricane preparedness, President Donald Trump took credit for U.S. energy production milestones that have been expected for years, and misstated the facts in the process:

• Trump said the U.S. is now “the largest energy producer in the world. Who would have thought?” The White House cited a January report by the International Energy Agency that said the U.S. could become the No. 1 crude oil producer this year. That’s not new. The IEA predicted in 2012 that the U.S. would become the No. 1 oil producer by 2017.
• Trump said that “we’re now exporting energy for the first time.” That’s false. The U.S. is not expected to become a net energy exporter until 2022. The White House said he was referring only to natural gas. The U.S. did become a net exporter of natural gas last year for the first time since 1957 — as projected by the U.S. Energy Information Administration in