Post: Trump starts reshaping US energy

Trump starts reshaping US energy

President Donald Trump began a sweeping overhaul of US energy policy hours after taking office on January 20 by signing a flurry of first-day energy-related executive orders.

In his “America first” inaugural address, Trump said: “The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency.  We will drill, baby, drill.” “We have something no other manufacturing nation will ever have – the largest amount of oil and gas on earth and we are going to use it,” he said.

Trump said he was declaring a “national energy emergency”, promising that he would fill up strategic oil reserves. Trump also signed the executive order titled “unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential“, in which he elaborated on the oil plans.

Meanwhile the “Unleashing American Energy” order includes plans to:

• end the “Green new deal”, which aimed to address climate change, along with achieving other social aims like job creation, economic growth, and reducing economic inequality
• pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including but not limited to funds for electric vehicle charging stations made available through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program
• “revoke the EV mandate” and ensure a “level regulatory playing field for consumer choice in vehicles”
• boost oil and gas production and restart liquified natural gas terminal approvals.

Other orders signed:

• formally rescinds a series of moves made by the Biden administration that stitched climate and environmental justice throughout federal agency decision-making.
• suspends offshore wind leasing from all areas of the outer continental shelf pending an environmental and economic review
• Putting America first in international environmental agreements including the USA’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the revocation of the International Climate Finance Plan.