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Trump’s Cabinet picks for Interior, Energy, and EPA are allies of the oil and gas industry.
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They plan to expand drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and on federal lands and roll back climate rules.
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Scientists warn that burning more fossil fuels will worsen the climate crisis.
President-elect Donald Trump wants to stack his Cabinet with oil and gas supporters who plan to make it easier to drill on federal lands and waters and repeal climate rules for the industry.
If confirmed by the Senate, three key nominees would largely be responsible for executing Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” agenda across the federal government.
Trump tapped Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, a Republican with ties to fossil-fuel executives, to serve as interior secretary. The Interior Department leases millions of acres of public lands and waters for oil and gas drilling.
Chris Wright, the CEO of the fracking company Liberty Energy, is nominated to serve as energy secretary. The Energy Department’s pause on approvals of new export terminals for shipping US gas overseas is a top target of the incoming Trump administration, as are billions of dollars’ worth of loans and grants accelerating the US transition to renewable energy.
And Lee Zeldin, a former congressman from New York who often voted against climate legislation, has been tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates pollution from cars, trucks, power plants, and oil and gas infrastructure.
Burgum would coordinate the effort as the chair of the National Energy Council, which Trump in a statement on Truth Social said would consist of all the departments and agencies involved with “permitting, regulating, producing, generating, distributing, and transporting energy.” Cutting red tape and regulations is their mandate, Trump said.
Scientists say that the US and other major economies must reduce the burning of fossil fuels to slow the climate crisis — which is already making hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, and droughts more destructive around the globe. Trump and his allies in the oil and gas industry argue that the US should boost production to drive down prices and help lower inflation, an issue voters cited as a main concern in the election this year. Energy analysts have said gas prices are mostly determined by global supply and demand, not the actions of any one president.
Here are three actions Trump’s Cabinet is gearing up to take, based on interviews with several groups helping shape his agenda. When asked about these priorities, Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance campaign, said: “The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.
Resume approvals of new gas export facilities
At the Energy Department, Wright, if confirmed, is expected to start approving permits for new gas export terminals, which have largely been paused in 2024 by the Biden administration.
Biden paused approvals of new terminals in January until the department could analyze their impacts on greenhouse-gas emissions and energy costs for consumers. A federal judge blocked the pause this summer, and the department has greenlighted one permit since then. Republicans and the oil and gas industry accused the Biden administration of intentionally holding up the process. They argue the delays undercut America’s leverage over its competitors, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia, and cost jobs at home.
The pause didn’t affect terminals already under construction, which are on track to double US gas exports by the end of this decade, federal data shows. Some energy analysts and consumer advocates have said America’s dominance in the global market could expose customers to more-volatile prices. A cold snap in Europe or unrest in the Middle East could spike demand for gas — and therefore prices — and the climate crisis is increasing the risks of extreme weather shocks.
“The incoming administration has an opportunity to bolster America’s geopolitical strength by lifting the Department of Energy’s LNG permitting pause, swiftly processing all pending export applications, and ensuring the open access of American energy to global markets,” Amanda Eversole, the chief advocacy officer of the American Petroleum Institute, told reporters during a call last week.
Permit more oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico
The Interior Department between 2024 and 2029 is set to hold three lease sales for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico — the fewest number since the program began decades ago. The sales were required by the Inflation Reduction Act, which directed the department to offer a minimum amount of oil and gas leases before opening an auction for offshore-wind developers.
The oil and gas industry is pushing the Trump administration to issue a new five-year offshore-leasing program.
“There are companies that would pay for leases in the western Gulf of Mexico today if there was an auction held,” said Kenny Stein, the vice president for policy at the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group advising Trump’s energy agenda. “They have platforms and equipment already in place and could start drilling quickly.”
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods similarly told CNBC earlier this month that there were areas in the Gulf of Mexico that could be tapped for more oil production in the long term. He doesn’t expect a major US oil boom, however, because the market is already well supplied, he said.
The incoming Trump administration is also expected to shrink national monuments in the West to open up more public lands to drilling and mining, though those moves would likely be challenged by environmental groups in court, Stein said.
Roll back climate rules
Trump has promised to “kill” the EPA’s regulations that limit emissions from cars, trucks, power plants, and oil and gas wells, pumps, and storage tanks. He has also called the Inflation Reduction Act the “green new scam” and promised to claw back subsidies for renewable energy under the law.
It’s a replay of Trump’s first term, when the EPA scrapped nearly 100 environmental rules. This time, some climate rules have support from automakers and big oil and gas companies. Woods of ExxonMobil told Semafor last week that the Trump administration should keep regulations to curb methane emissions from oil and gas infrastructure. The largest US automaker group has said that the future is electric and companies are investing billions in the transition. But Trump attacked electric vehicles on the campaign trail, adopting the oil and gas lobby’s messaging.
A full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act is unlikely, in part because the majority of $220 billion in investments in manufacturing EVs, batteries, solar panels, and other renewables technologies are flowing to Republican congressional districts, David Brown, the director of the energy-transition service at Wood Mackenzie, said in a statement.
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