Here are Trump’s top seven energy victories in 2018 through his America-First agenda:
• On August 21, 2018, Trump introduced the
Affordable Clean Energy rule that dismantled the Obama administration’s federal rules over the nation’s coal production and gives authority to the states.
“Some states, like California, may propose even harsher targets. But others, such as coal-rich states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania, are likely to loosen emissions regulations that coal industry leaders have called burdensome and expensive,”
National Geographic reported.
• On September 18, the Trump administration announced final new rollbacks to
reducing requirements for oil and gas companies to monitor and mitigate methane from wells and other production sources.
National Geographic noted that Obama’s last-minute 2016 rule would cost the oil and gas industries $530 million by 2025.
• On October 24, the Trump administration’s Department of Interior announced that it would
allow the first oil and gas production in waters of the U.S. Arctic. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a conditional permit to Hilcorp, which hopes to extract 60,000 to 70,000 barrels per day from as many as 16 wells on the island — a total haul of 80 million to 130 million barrels over 15 to 20 years. Oil will be transported by an underwater pipeline.
“Responsibly developing our resources, in Alaska especially, will allow us to use our energy diplomatically to aid our allies and check our adversaries,” then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said about the announcement. ”That makes America stronger and more influential around the globe.”
• On November 30, the Trump administration permitted five oil and gas companies to use seismic airgun blasts to detect lucrative oil and gas deposits that may exist under the ocean floor off the U.S. east coast, from New Jersey to Florida.
“The proposal was shot down by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in 2017 after it was deemed unsafe for marine life, but a recent review by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded the blasts could be done without significantly threatening the population status of threatened or endangered species,”
National Geographic reported.
• On December 6, the Trump administration announced it was putting plans in place to
protect the once-endangered sage grouse but also allow millions of acres of public lands to benefit Americans in the states where the birds live,” Breitbart News
reported. This includes plans to allow more oil and gas drilling, mining, and other activities.
“I completely believe that these plans are leaning forward on the conservation of sage grouse,” Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt told the Associated Press. ”Do they do it in exactly the same way? No. We made some change in the plans and got rid of some things that are simply not necessary.”
