“Drill, baby, drill”: When Donald Trump blurted this during the recent CNN Town Hall, the crowd went wild. Remember?

American energy independence and energy dominance were key successes of Mr. Trump’s first term. There was virtually no inflation, interest rates were low, and, along with tax cuts and deregulation, the moribund Obama economy came to life. That was then, this is now. 

President Biden has waged war on fossil fuels for two and a half years, doing everything he can to shut the spigots. So, inflation re-emerged, rising 15 percent, with energy up 33 percent and grocery prices up nearly 20 percent.

Energy is not the only inflationary source, but Mr. Trump has the overall story basically right. Last night, appearing with Sean Hannity on Fox News, the former president repeated his attack on Mr. Biden.

“So we were energy independent,” he said. “Think of it, three years ago, and what people don’t know is that we have, I call it liquid gold, because it’s gold. It’s better than gold. We have liquid gold under our feet more than any other nation, more than Saudi Arabia, more than Russia. We’re energy independent. 

“Within six months we would have been energy dominant and we were going to sell energy to Europe and lots of other places. And we’re going to make so much money doing it because it’s such a big world, you know, it’s such a big business. It’s all encompassing. And that’s what started the inflation. I mean, the energy we stopped drilling and all of a sudden gasoline’s going up to $5 or $6 a gallon in a car.”

Now here’s the good news: Americans are rebelling against Mr. Biden’s radical left, green new deal policies that have inflicted pain on the economy, jacked up inflation, and caused real take home pay for middle-class, blue-collar working families to decline for more than two years straight. 

A recent poll sponsored by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity shows that 79 percent agree we shouldn’t make energy more expensive. Only 19 percent disagree. The same poll shows that 77 percent of respondents don’t want to be forced into electric vehicles. Only 23 percent want an EV mandate.

Finally, when asked how much they would personally be willing to pay each year to address global warming, the median response was $20. Mr. Biden, of course, is spending trillions of dollars. Pollster Mike McKenna notes that all these responses are moving away from the Biden war against fossil fuels. 

There’s even some more good news: The scourge of ESG may be coming to an end. ESG is short for environmental, social, and corporate governance. It is a left-wing rallying cry embodying radical climate change as well as far-left investment and even cultural issues.

At two recent shareholder meetings, for ExxonMobil and Chevron, ESG supporters got whupped. Shareholders defeated a bunch of proposals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, put out new reports on climate benchmarks, and disclose oil spill risks. Last year, those proposals were very popular. 

Incidentally, similar climate proposals were defeated at the annual meetings for BP and Shell. Big investment companies like Vanguard and Blackrock have pulled back. SEC regulatory proposals that would practically dictate that companies run on the basis of climate are in disfavor.

A leading Federal Reserve governor just gave a hard-hitting speech saying the Fed’s job is monetary and financial stability, not policing climate change.

As the Russian war in Ukraine continues to rage, Europe is now changing its tune on fossil fuels, making natural gas a legitimate and acceptable clean-burning fuel. Let’s hope that the tide is in fact turning.

Because if it does, and common sense policies are restored, America will be more prosperous, with far less inflation.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.