Trump intends to declare 'national energy emergency,' focus on fossil fuels

Such moves will have ramifications for steel-intensive industries such as energy production and manufacturing of auto and hard consumer goods.

“We have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth. And we are going to use it,” he said. “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.”

In 2020, the United States became a net exporter of petroleum for the first time since at least 1949, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

In 2022, total petroleum exports were about 9.52 million barrels per day (b/d) and total petroleum imports were about 8.33 million b/d, making the United States an annual net total petroleum exporter for the third year in a row. Imports peaked in 2005, according to government data.

Electric vehicles and renewable energy

The incoming administration said it also wants to streamline permitting and roll back regulations that “impose undue burdens on energy production and use,” according to a White House memo to Congress.

Trump said Monday he will “end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers.

“In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice,” he said. “We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago.”

Though federal tax incentives encourage electric vehicle purchases, a rule requiring only electric vehicles to be used doesn’t exist at the federal level.

The memo said the energy actions would empower consumer choice in vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs, and dishwashers.

In addition, the incoming administration said it would end leasing to wind farms. It also wants to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. Trump likewise said the US would abandon the landmark Paris agreement in 2017 during his first term, a move that the Biden administration later reversed.