President-elect Donald Trump will return to the White House in January with an agenda to slash government regulations, expand fossil fuel production and fire his critics in the federal government.
Following Trump’s decisive win Tuesday and with Republicans clinching control of at least one chamber of Congress, the president-elect and his team are poised to make drastic overhauls to energy and environmental policies.
“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” Trump said in a victory speech early Wednesday morning.
Trump and his allies have spent the past four years planning for a second term, putting them in a stronger position to enact swift policy changes than when Trump took office in 2016 on the heels of a chaotic presidential transition. The incoming Senate majority will give the president-elect more leeway to pick aides who require confirmation. Republicans could also claim a majority in the House, which would expand Trump’s power to enact new legislation and guide federal spending.
Specific personnel and policy announcements are expected to come from the president-elect in the coming weeks and months, but Trump has made his broad agenda clear on the campaign trail. He has pledged to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production, withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement and rescind a host of Biden-era environmental rules.
Trump also plans to overhaul the executive branch, including restarting efforts from his first term to fire civil servants and relocate some federal agencies. Trump has said he wants to “shatter the deep state” and move “parts of the federal bureaucracy outside of the Washington Swamp,” just as the Trump administration previously moved the Bureau of Land Management headquarters from Washington to Colorado.
“I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept,” Trump said Wednesday morning. “We’re going to keep our promises.”
Day One
Trump’s promises include swiftly reversing Biden administration environmental regulations.
“On Day One, President Trump will rescind every one of Joe Biden’s industry-killing, jobs-killing, pro-China and anti-American electricity regulations,” Trump says on his campaign website.
“On Day One, President Trump will also roll back every Biden administration mandate that is brutalizing the American auto industry and the American consumer with skyrocketing costs,” the website says.
The president doesn’t have the power to eliminate federal regulations through an executive order, although Trump is almost certain to direct agencies to reconsider regulations on the books and to pause Biden-era rules that haven’t been finalized. Given Trump’s rhetoric during the campaign, expect dramatic reversals on environmental rules.
Trump has also repeatedly pledged to expand fossil fuel production, and “drill, baby, drill” was an oft-used motto on the campaign trail. “President Trump will free up the vast stores of liquid gold on America’s public land for energy development,” his campaign website says.
It’ll be an immediate priority, Trump’s senior adviser Jason Miller told NBC’s “Today” show. Trump’s first order of business after he takes office will be executive actions to “get back to drilling” and reinstate Trump-era border policies, Miller said.
A new Trump team
A second Trump administration is likely to feature a host of new officials with sway over energy and environmental policies.
Trump signaled in recent weeks that some of his allies are in the running for influential gigs in his administration, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Trump said he plans to put Musk in charge of a “government efficiency commission” aimed at cutting rules. Trump praised Musk during his victory speech Wednesday. “We have a new star. A star is born: Elon,” Trump said. “He’s an amazing guy.”
Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic and former Democrat who threw his endorsement to Trump after dropping his own presidential bid, said Trump promised him “control of the public health agencies.”
Kennedy “wants to do some things, and we’re gonna let him go to it,” Trump said Wednesday.
Kennedy said recently that Trump would direct public water systems to remove fluoride from the water, which Kennedy argues is dangerous to public health. Trump told NBC that he hadn’t discussed it with Kennedy, but “it sounds OK to me.”
Trump has also said that Kennedy, a longtime environmentalist, can’t “touch the oil and gas.”
‘Cleaning out the Deep State’
Trump has pledged a swift overhaul to the federal workforce by “cleaning out the Deep State,” including a vow to restart his first-term effort to make it easier to fire government workers.
On Day One, his campaign website says, Trump plans to reissue his “2020 executive order restoring the president’s authority to fire rogue bureaucrats.”
Biden revoked that order and his administration put a new rule in place in an attempt to guard against such an attempt. But the Biden regulation may only slow Trump’s efforts to make it easier to fire federal workers.
Trump has pledged to launch a “major crackdown on government leakers who collude with the media to create false narratives, pressing criminal charges when appropriate.”
And the president-elect said he would establish “a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to declassify and publish all documents on Deep State spying, censorship, and abuses of power.”
The resistance regroups
Trump’s critics, reeling Wednesday from the election results, vowed to revive their efforts to counter the Trump administration as renewable energy advocates expressed hope that the Biden team’s massive investments in climate and renewable energy might withstand a second Trump administration.
The Environmental Protection Network, a group of EPA alumni founded in the wake of Trump’s first election, said it plans to continue to push back against any efforts by a new administration to undermine public health and environmental protections.
“Today, we are even stronger and more prepared to combat misinformation, shine a light on attempts to put politics ahead of science and the law, and support the bipartisan legacy of protecting the health and welfare of all of us,” said Michelle Roos, executive director of the Environmental Protection Network.
“Trump 2.0 is going to get twice the fight from the protectors of our planet, wildlife and basic human rights,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’ve battled Trump from the border wall to the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, and in many cases we’ve won. This country’s bedrock environmental laws stand strong. We’re more prepared than ever to block the disastrous Trump policies we know are coming.”
Clean energy advocates are hoping that there’s enough political pressure to safeguard investments made under Democrats’ massive climate law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act. Trump has said he would rescind all unspent funds under the law, but some Republicans have said they want to keep at least some of the law’s provisions in place.
“I know we are all worried about the outcome of this election, but keep in mind that the bulk of these clean energy projects are operating or under construction in Republican districts,” Gina McCarthy, who served as Biden’s top White House climate official, said in a statement Wednesday.
“That means many — if not most — Republican members of Congress have been joining hundreds of business leaders at ribbon cuttings and groundbreaking ceremonies,” she said. “Because it is undeniably true that the IRA is good for businesses and good for all Americans, any attempted rollback of the IRA is a fool’s errand.”
