Trump Plans ‘Energy Dominance’ Orders

President-elect Donald Trump is preparing executive orders aimed at boosting American fossil fuels and undoing his predecessor's push for the U.S. to adopt electric vehicles.

After his inauguration Monday, Trump is expected to instruct agencies to begin unwinding President Biden's limits on drilling offshore and on federal land, oil lobbyists said.

Among other orders, Trump is planning to push for a rollback of tailpipe emissions rules he has described as an "EV mandate," and resume approvals for plants that export U.S. natural gas.

Trump's transition team has discussed his second-term intentions with some in the oil industry, according to industry lobbyists. The plans are fluid and could change.

Trump is expected to sign dozens of executive orders during his first days in office, making big changes to U.S. policies on energy, immigration, education and other constants of American life.

The president-elect rode back to the White House with a pro-oil message that he termed "energy dominance." He directed pro-fracking messages to swing voters in gas-rich Pennsylvania and his antipathy toward Biden's policies boosting EVs seemed to resonate in Michigan, the heart of the U.S. auto industry. Billionaire oil donors swooned, and poured tens of millions of dollars into his re-election efforts. Now, Trump is making his first attempt at paying them all back.

"The American people can bank on President Trump using his executive power on day one to deliver on the promises he made to them on the campaign trail," said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. "When he takes office, President Trump will make America energy dominant again."

"Energy clearly was on the ballot, and we're going to make the case that energy won," said Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's main lobby.

To press his agenda, Trump will order big changes at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy and Interior departments. Some of his moves will likely be challenged in court, and Trump might need Republican lawmakers to take a swing at overturning Biden's rules through the Congressional Review Act.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican ally, said Tuesday that with control of both branches of Congress, Republicans are prepared to act on Trump's energy priorities. "That is available to you when you happen to control the government," Thune said at a meeting hosted by the API.

Among Trump's first moves, oil lobbyists said, will be the creation of a national energy council overseeing U.S. oil, natural-gas and electric-power policy. Trump has already tapped his nominees for Interior secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and Energy secretary, oil executive Chris Wright, to help lead the council. Both are facing Senate confirmation hearings this week.

Trump is also widely expected to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, as he did during his first term, potentially through an executive order during his first days in office. The U.S. had rejoined the accord under Biden in 2021.

Earlier this month, Biden's administration banned offshore drilling across 625 million acres off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska.

The White House said the move would protect marine ecosystems and local economies dependent on fishing and tourism.

Reversing the Biden administration's drilling ban could be legally challenging. In 2019, when Trump tried to reopen drilling in arctic areas where it had been banned by former President Barack Obama, a federal judge ruled Trump would need congressional authority.

Trump is also planning to end the Energy Department's procedural freeze on the approval of new projects exporting liquefied natural gas, or LNG, industry lobbyists said.

Trump's oil and gas donors have for months pushed him to lift the pause. Biden declared the moratorium nearly a year ago as he asked his administration to assess the effects of exports on energy costs, America's energy security and the environment. The Energy Department last month released an analysis of these impacts.

In addition, the president-elect is taking aim at EVs. Last March, Biden's EPA issued stringent rules for tailpipe emissions, though it also gave the auto industry more time to phase out gasoline-powered cars compared with rules it had issued in 2023. Trump is expected to order the EPA to take measures to roll back the rules.

Oil companies and their lobbyists had railed against the emissions rules and urged Trump to undo them. On the campaign trail in Michigan, Trump said Biden's emissions rules would "spell the death of the U.S. auto industry."