In the runup to his election last week, Donald Trump said he would support more domestic oil and gas development as a way to help tame the rampant inflation that has pushed up the prices for food, transportation — and nearly everything else.

American consumers should be thrilled by the prospect of lower prices.

And, ironically, those folks who are concerned about “battling” climate change should be happy as well.

We should explain.

The United States is rich in fossil fuels. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, the nation has proved reserves of 48.3 billion barrels of crude oil and 691 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

In spite of that fact, we have allowed ourselves to remain dependent on foreign sources of oil. As a result, we find ourselves sucked into one dispute after another over oil.

It is a terrible policy made worse when the Biden administration and selected governors began to back away from developing fossil fuels in favor of massively expensive and uneconomical “clean” sources of energy.

Natural gas, oil and gasoline prices were not only pushed upward by the foreign oil crowd but by the domestic climate change crowd.

In Washington state, oil and gas distributors were forced to “buy” the right to sell diesel fuel, gasoline and natural gas as penance for their sins against the political climate. It should also be noted: that state is now swimming in cash — a politician’s dream.

There and elsewhere, electricity and natural gas prices began to spiral out of control with increases of as much as 30% with more to come, as utilities were forced to give up efficient and reliable sources of electricity for the hit-and-miss “clean” variety dependent on the weather.

Then along came Trump with his proposal: Drill, baby, drill.

Oil and natural gas are plentiful across the landscape, especially in states like Texas and Alaska, where a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to tidewater has been contemplated for decades.

Finger-wagging climatologists warn that natural gas — methane — is a greenhouse gas and, as such, shouldn’t be used in any form. Too bad they missed high school chemistry, where they could have learned that methane, whose molecular formula is CH4, can be converted in hydrogen and carbon.

Some hydrogen projects now being proposed would use H2O — water, a resource in short supply across the West.

As they may or may not know, hydrogen is the cleanest fuel available anywhere, and automobiles and trucks can be converted to burn it without the jaw-dropping costs of replacing them or building massive new electrical generation plants and transmission lines.

Such a notion is unpopular with the climate crowd — but exceedingly popular with consumers who are being stuck with the tab for wind turbines and solar panels, all of which receive federal subsidies.

Unlike the Biden administration, Trump is not hung up on one form of alternative energy. He seems open to all forms, especially those that can help reduce the rate of inflation and get the U.S. away from the Middle East and other hotbeds of anti-Americanism.

As he follows through on his promise to develop the nation’s vast energy resources, Trump will reduce inflation and the amount of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere.

Even the climate crowd will like it.