“Drill, baby, drill.”
Donald Trump often deploys that phrase in his presidential campaign. But the words are a slogan, not a statement of policy. Trump’s specific energy proposals are better understood through his public speeches, his campaign statements and his past actions in the White House.
And, especially, Trump’s energy plans are detailed on the donaldjtrump.com website, in the section titled “Agenda47.” The site includes multiple lists of what Trump – who served as the 45th U.S. president – intends to do if he is elected in November as the 47th.
Trump has pledged once again to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agreement, also known as the Paris Climate Accords. The action reflects his opposition to President Joe Biden’s climate initiatives, and his intent to reverse them.
Like most of Trump’s policy statements, the Agenda47 entries are full of colorful, value-loaded language.
“President Trump will once again exit the horrendously unfair Paris Climate Accords and oppose all of the radical left’s Green New Deal policies that are designed to shut down the development of America’s abundant energy resources,” the online agenda states.
Policy Plans
Trump’s energy policies and plans generally encompass three areas.
First, he intends to facilitate U.S. hydrocarbon energy supply, especially oil and gas drilling, production and transportation. He has promised to remove restrictions on oil and gas development and to curtail or lighten energy regulations.
“I would expect more leasing of offshore areas, fewer restrictions on drilling on federal lands. I would expect that the rule that restricts methane emissions would be repealed, or at least weakened,” said David Spence, professor and chair in natural resources law at the University of Texas-Austin School of Law.
Second, Trump has vowed to negate Biden’s climate initiatives, to the greatest extent possible. That includes attempts to reverse most of Biden’s executive orders on energy and attacking green energy regulations and legislation.
And third, Trump has promised to modernize, upgrade and expand other U.S. energy facilities, including the national power grid, electrical power plants and nuclear energy installations. He’s outlined a broad approach to action in all three areas.
Here are some of Trump’s specific energy-related campaign pledges:
- Speed up approval of natural gas pipelines, including lines into the Marcellus Shale area in Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia
- End delays and restrictions on federal drilling permits and offshore leases
- Cancel the 2024 Environmental Protection Agency emission regulations for light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles, rules that regulate greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants
- Support nuclear energy production “by modernizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, working to keep existing power plants open and investing in innovative small modular reactors.”
- Reverse the EPA’s ruling that requires both coal-fired and new natural gas-fired power plants to control 90 percent of their carbon emissions
- Remove the recently announced federal corporate average fuel economy standards that require an industry-wide fleet average of roughly 50.4 miles per gallon by model year 2031 for passenger cars and light trucks
Trump also has pledged to “fill up” the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Presumably, that would bring storage levels close to the reserve’s 714-million-barrel authorized capacity. The reserve held 370 million barrels at the end of May, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
‘I hate wind.’
Political analysts often note Trump’s pronounced opposition to wind energy and his antagonism toward electric vehicles. That personal hostility toward wind and EVs is reflected in his public statements.
“I hate wind,” Trump reportedly said at a meeting with oil and gas executives in April. He also suggested a combined $1 billion campaign contribution from the hydrocarbon industry, calling it a “bargain” for reduced regulation and taxation, according to some meeting attendees.
In a video on his website, Trump said, “Right now we have energy that’s weak, substandard and unaffordable. It’s made by the wind. The windmills rust. They rot. They kill the birds. It’s the most expensive energy there is.”
EVs also come under attack in his recorded remarks. Trump “seems to have a particular, personal animus against electric cars for some reason, particularly because China is the leader in electric vehicles,” said Mark Finley, fellow in energy and global oil at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Trump proclaims in the video, “At the same time as Biden is shutting down existing power plants, he also wants to force hundreds of millions of Americans into ultra-expensive electric vehicles. It costs twice as much as what you have. And what you have is better and it goes a lot longer. And it’s a lot easier to fill up.”
He added, “I will cancel Biden’s ruinous power plant rule, terminate his electric vehicle mandate – if you want to buy an electric car, that’s fine, but you’re going to be able to buy every other form of car also – and unleash domestic energy production like never before.”
Trump has denounced Chinese EVs as a threat to U.S. automakers. It was Biden, however, who recently imposed a 100-percent import tariff rate on EVs.
“I suspect China will loom large in energy-related issues” in a second Trump administration, Finley noted. “Possibly on the international policy front, they (Trump’s energy policies) could include sanctions on China. It certainly applies to EV sales.”
Industry Cooperation
The online news and opinion service Politico reported in May that energy-industry leaders are devising suggested steps for Trump to take if he is elected president. Those include ending Biden’s pause on new natural gas export permits, facilitating access to federal lands and offshore waters for drilling and cancelling a strict EPA methane-emissions rule.
“The U.S. oil industry is drawing up ready-to-sign executive orders for Donald Trump aimed at pushing natural gas exports, cutting drilling costs and increasing offshore oil leases in case he wins a second term, according to energy executives with direct knowledge of the work,” Politico reported.
Other suggested energy-related actions come from the Project 2025 Presidential Transition plan, primarily a collection of policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The project suggests a policy framework for a second Trump term in the White House. Its proposals include:
- Affirming an all-of the-above energy policy “through which the best attributes of every resource can be harnessed for the benefit of the American people”
- Supporting repeal of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and other spending bills with sustainable energy provisions
- Eliminating Biden-era green energy offices established in the Department of Energy, including the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations
- Refocusing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission “on ensuring that customers have affordable and reliable electricity, natural gas and oil”
FERC, a five-member independent commission, holds considerable authority in the U.S. energy arena. In interstate supply, it regulates oil pipelines and transmission of natural gas, as well as the transmission and wholesale pricing of electricity. It also reviews proposals to build new LNG terminals and gas pipelines.
By law, no more than three commissioners from the same political party can serve on the commission at the same time. Because of appointments approved this year, Democrats will have a 3-2 majority on the commission until at least June 2026. But most political observers consider FERC generally favorable to oil and gas development.
Congress as the Decisive Factor
In a second Trump term, “pulling back all the EPA rules that affect oil and gas would be pretty impactful,” Spence observed.
“On the EPA side of things is where they could do a lot of damage,” he said.
Spence cited the case West Virginia v. EPA, which limited the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act. Courts basically have ruled that if federal regulatory agencies make decisions on “major questions,” they need explicit authority from Congress to do so.
“We need Congress to take action, especially after the West Virginia case,” Spence noted. “The courts have really been reining in the president.”
Control of Congress will be a vital factor in determining how much the person occupying the White House can accomplish over the next four years. Trump faced a divided Congress in 2019-20, his last two years in office.
“Obviously, it depends on who controls Congress. And that’s true for both (Trump and Biden),” Finley said.
According to an Agenda47 entry, if Trump is elected he will “take action to challenge the constitutionality of limits placed on the Impoundment Power by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.”
“On Day One, President Trump will direct federal agencies to identify portions of their budgets where massive savings are possible through the Impoundment Power, while maintaining the same level of funding for defense, Social Security, and Medicare,” it states.
The 1974 act curtailed the president’s power to withhold obligated funds without approval from Congress. Under the impoundment rules, the president may request that Congress rescind previously appropriated but unspent funds. The White House cannot withhold funds from their designated purpose unless they are rescinded.
Trump’s aim is to block at least some spending authorized during the Biden administration. An analysis by Politico found that out of the $1.1 trillion in authorized spending in Biden’s climate, infrastructure, technology and pandemic-relief laws, less than 17 percent had been spent as of April 2024.
A second Trump term would involve significant effort in overturning energy measures put in place during the Biden Administration, while introducing new policies to support hydrocarbon development and other energy sources.
“Trump will pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement immediately and do everything he can to gut the Inflation Reduction Act,” said Joshua Busby, professor of public affairs at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin.
If Donald Trump is elected in November, what he intends to do is to undo, starting with his first day in office.