Updates with changes throughout
President Donald Trump pledged today to declare a "national energy emergency" as one of the first acts of his second term in office and has signed a series of executive orders designed to bring down energy costs, including pulling the US out of the Paris climate agreement.
The executive orders on energy, trade and other issues will restore "common sense" in US policy, Trump said during his second inaugural address, moments after being sworn in at the US Capitol. The executive orders and emergency declaration are intended to expedite permitting of energy infrastructure, tackle inflation, roll back climate programs put in place under former president Joe Biden and pursue what Trump says is a policy to "drill, baby, drill".
Trump signed his first set of executive orders during a rally tonight with supporters and plans to sign more orders later tonight at the White House. The first executive orders will implement an "immediate regulation freeze", put a temporary hold on hiring workers and rescind 78 of Biden's executive actions and memoranda. Trump also signed a directive to federal agencies to take steps to reduce the cost-of-living, along with a separate order that will withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord for a second time.
"I'm immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off," Trump said at a rally later in the day. "The United States will not sabotage their own industries while China pollutes with impunity."
Trump's declaration of an "energy emergency" could bolster the legal rationale for some of energy policies and plans to expedite permitting. Trump also said he plans to end the "Green New Deal" — a reference to climate programs enacted under Biden — and revoke an "electric vehicle mandate" he said is threatening the US auto manufacturing sector.
Trump also vowed to begin an "overhaul" of the US trade system to protect domestic workers and reiterated his support for tariffs, which he sees as a way to raise government revenue and support domestic manufacturing.
"Tariffs are going to make us rich as hell," Trump said. They are "going to bring our country's businesses back that left us."
But it remains unclear if Trump will move ahead with his threatened 25pc tariff against Canada that oil industry officials have said could disrupt the nearly 4mn b/d of crude the US imports from Canada.
On foreign policy, Trump said the US would "reclaim its rightful place" as the most powerful country in the world and reiterated plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Trump also promised still-unspecified actions to take control of the US-built Panama Canal in response to what he says has been unfair treatment of US ships, a threat that Panamanian president Jose Raul Mulino has rejected.
"We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back," Trump said.
Trump is expected to take action soon to restart licensing of US LNG export terminals and support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Trump said he wants the US to take advantage of its vast oil and gas reserves, which he said would reduce energy prices and increase energy exports. Trump also said he wants to refill the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which is at 55pc of its capacity with 394mn bl of crude in storage, "right to the top". Refilling the SPR would require the US Congress to appropriate $32bn at current prices, to offset the costs of canceling 100mn bl of upcoming mandatory crude sales and buying about 300mn bl of crude.
Trump has yet to specify which parts of Biden's climate legislation he will work to overturn, which also would require congressional action. But the White House said the administration would consider rescinding all federal rules that put "undue burdens" on energy producers and stop leasing federal land to wind farms. "We're not going to do the wind thing," Trump said. That drew an outcry from offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward, whose executive director Hillary Bright said an emergency should require unleashing "all necessary sources of American energy — including offshore wind."
During his campaign, Trump promised to cut the price of energy by 50pc within 12 months of taking office. But with regular grade gasoline averaging close to $3/USG and Henry Hub natural gas prices less $4/mmBtu this month, such a dramatic cut in prices would be difficult to achieve without causing major disruptions to industry. Environmentalists and Democratic-led states are also preparing to file lawsuits challenging Trump's deregulatory actions, a strategy they used during his first term with mixed success.
Trump was sworn in in a relatively small ceremony inside the US Capitol, after calling off a more traditional, outdoor inauguration because of temperatures that were hovering around 23° F. Among those in attendance was Telsa chief executive Elon Musk, who spent more than $250mn to help elect Trump and is chairing a cost-cutting advisory panel.
After being sworn in, Trump formally nominated his cabinet members, leaving it up to the Republican-controlled US Senate to hold confirmation votes. Trump also named Republicans to lead 15 independent agencies.
Trump named Mark Christie as chairman of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Mark Uyeda as acting chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission,and Patrick Fuchs as chair of the US Surface Transportation Board. Caroline Pham became acting chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission through a vote of its members.
