President Donald Trump announced an ambitious plan on Monday aimed at bolstering oil and gas production in the United States. The proposal included declaring a national ‘energy emergency‘ to accelerate permitting processes, rolling back environmental regulations, and withdrawing the U.S. from an international climate agreement.
The strategy represents a stark departure from the energy policies of former President Joe Biden, who prioritized transitioning the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels over the past four years.
But it remains uncertain whether Trump’s measures will significantly affect domestic energy production, which is already at record levels. American drillers have been capitalizing on high prices driven by sanctions on Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth,” Trump said during his inauguration speech.
“And we are going to use it.” he added.
Trump signed executive orders to boost oil and gas development in Alaska, undoing Biden-era measures that aimed to protect Arctic lands and U.S. coastal waters from drilling. The orders included revoking Biden’s electric vehicle (EV) adoption targets, halting offshore wind lease sales, and lifting a freeze on permits for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.
He also withdrew the United States from the 2015 Paris climate deal, the international pact to fight global warming.
Trump’s promise to refill strategic reserves, has the potential to lift oil prices by boosting demand for U.S. crude oil. The first Trump administration had considered using emergency powers under the Federal Power Act to attempt to carry out a pledge to rescue the declining coal industry but there was never a follow up.