Trump’s Advisers Draft First-Day Energy Policy Changes

by Tsvetana Paraskova: Aides to Donald Trump have drafted a list of environmental policy and energy-related changes that he could sign within hours after he is sworn in as U.S. President on Friday, Bloomberg reports, quoting two people familiar with the transition team’s plans.

The list of immediate energy policy changes reportedly includes measures to rescind Obama’s orders that federal agencies take into account climate change when they give the go-ahead to pipelines or decide which areas should be open for drilling, Bloomberg sources say.

In addition, Trump’s advisers are said to be targeting the social cost of carbon and are proposing to suspend the use of that metric until reviewed and recalculated.

The transition team is also advising Trump to rescind an executive order from 1968 that gave the power to the State Department to determine if a cross-border pipeline and other energy projects serve the national interest, Bloomberg reports. It was that order that allowed the State Department to review the Keystone XL pipeline proposed by TransCanada and ultimately rejected by the Obama administration.

A day after Trump was elected U.S. President, TransCanada issued a statement, telegraphing its interest in reviving the defunct Keystone XL Pipeline, which would take Alberta tar sands to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

“TransCanada remains fully committed to building Keystone XL,” spokesman Mark Cooper said in the post-election statement. “We are evaluating ways to engage the new administration on the benefits, the jobs and the tax revenues this project brings to the table.”

Last month, a leaked memo showed some details on the priorities for the Trump administration, and they would mark a huge departure from the Obama era and upend longstanding U.S. energy policy if implemented.

Some of the items are predictable given Trump’s clear position on supporting oil and gas drilling and his opposition to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the memo says that Trump will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, “hit the reset” on the Clean Power Plan, and increase leasing for oil and gas drilling on public lands.
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Tsvetana Paraskova authored this article contributed by James Stafford the editor of OilPrice.com, the leading online energy news site, to the ARRA News Service.

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