Trump Establishes a Framework to Promote Oil and Natural Gas Production

President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the National Energy Dominance Council, bringing together several cabinet secretaries to plan and coordinate oil and natural gas production. Under the Executive Order, the Council will develop a “National Energy Dominance Strategy” which will include “long-range goals” to produce more energy.

The National Energy Dominance Council will be chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright as Vice-Chair. It will coordinate the nation’s energy policies, giving life to Trump’s views that American energy production is an essential national security issue.

Read the Executive Order: Establishing the National Energy Dominance Council.

At the E.O. signing, it was also announced that the Administration had granted an export authorization for an LNG (liquefied natural gas) project in Louisiana. Such approvals had been prohibited under Biden, whose policies ended all such LNG projects last year.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that he had reversed Biden’s offshore oil drilling ban, which had removed hundreds of millions of ocean acres on the East and West coasts from oil drilling activities. As one of his last acts as President, Biden announced that he had placed over 625 million acres out of consideration for offshore drilling. Burgum said, “Now we need to turn that around 180 degrees and unleash that potential. We’ve got to unleash it from the Gulf of America all the way up to Alaska.”

Secretary Wright added, “Exporting American LNG strengthens the U.S. economy and supports American jobs while bolstering energy security around the world, and I am proud to be working with President Trump to get American energy exports back on track.”

Biden’s removal of these 625 million acres from oil production delighted environmentalists, but angered those who seek plentiful and less expensive energy, who termed Biden’s action a betrayal, and they also took the position that Biden’s order withdrawing over a half billion acres amounted to a “broken promise” to U.S. trading partners who depend on LNG imports.

“We’re going to make more money than anybody’s ever made with energy,” Trump said, adding that the United States has “clean energy, very clean beautiful energy. We’re lucky to have it. I call it liquid gold under our feet. And we’re going to utilize it.”

The new National Energy Dominance Council has been granted extensive authority over federal agencies concerning energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, and will determine how to cut bureaucratic red tape, enhance private sector investments and focus on innovation.

The Council’s functions are to:

• (i)    advise the President on how best to exercise his authority to produce more energy to make America energy dominant;
• (ii)   advise the President on improving the processes for permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, and export of all forms of American energy, including critical minerals;
• (iii)  provide to the President a recommended National Energy Dominance Strategy to produce more energy that includes long-range goals for achieving energy dominance by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the energy-producing economy, focusing on innovation, and seeking to eliminate longstanding, but unnecessary, regulation;
• (iv)   advise and assist the President in facilitating cooperation among the Federal Government and domestic private sector energy partners; and
• (v)    advise the President on facilitating consistency in energy production policies included in the Strategy developed under subsection (b)(iii) of this section.

Trump also said he would bring back efficiency standards for dishwashers and other appliances. It was pointed out that modern appliances, such as dishwashers, don’t work as well as their earlier versions.

Speaking of the 628 million areas that Biden sought to withdraw from oil drilling, the President said, “The amount of money that [Biden] took off our balance sheet was incalculable. He just wiped it out. That’s a major part of the ocean and he just gave it away, he took it away.” Mr. Trump said he had confidence that Biden’s the order could be undone “in a very legal procedure,” adding, “Now it’s back in our balance sheet.”