 "Trump likely to order changes to encourage domestic oil, gas development")
US President-elect Donald Trump is poised to order changes meant to encourage domestic oil and gas development immediately after his Jan. 20 inauguration.
“President Trump is going to get to work on day one, within seconds of his arrival at the Oval Office,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition team, told Fox News Tuesday. She said that includes executive orders “to drill, baby, drill,” and “to expedite permits for drilling and for fracking all over this country so we can immediately bring down the cost of living.”
Leavitt’s comments offer a glimpse at administrative actions Trump could set in motion his first day as the nation’s 47th president, including policy changes that would be executed by federal agencies over months or years to come.
Trump telegraphed similar ambitions on the campaign trail, vowing to “unleash domestic energy production like never before” by ending “delays in federal drilling permits and leases,” freeing up “vast stores of liquid gold on America’s public land for energy development,” and removing “all red tape that is leaving oil and natural gas projects stranded.”
Trump followed a similar path his first term in office, with a day-one directive meant to advance construction of two oil pipelines and a separate executive order tasking federal agencies with scouring regulations for any that burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources.
Oil and gas advocates have already identified a host of potential targets. That includes directing the Interior Department to revise a Biden-era plan for selling offshore leases that limits just three auctions over the next five years, a record low. Other proposals include expedited sales of drilling rights on federal land and easing mandates meant to limit gas venting and flaring on the territory.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and industry leaders also have touted the opportunity to encourage more energy development in oil-rich state, including by easing new, Biden-era curbs on activities in the National Petroleum Reserve, where ConocoPhillips, Santos Ltd., Repsol SA and Armstrong Oil & Gas Inc., have had interests.