Trump to declare energy emergency

By Robin Bravender, Kevin Bogardus | 01/20/2025 09:56 AM EST

The incoming Trump administration previewed a series of Day 1 executive orders on energy and environmental policies.

Donald Trump speaks as Melania Trump listens

President-elect Donald Trump speaks Sunday at a dinner at the Building Museum in Washington as Melania Trump listens. Evan Vucci/AP

President-elect Donald Trump will declare a national energy emergency as part of a series of executive orders he plans to sign after his inauguration, incoming Trump White House officials announced Monday.

As Trump pledged on the campaign trail, several of his first-day moves will seek to expand domestic energy production and unravel Biden administration energy and environmental policies.

Trump plans to declare a national energy emergency and issue an executive order aimed at “unleashing American energy,” an incoming White House official told reporters Monday ahead of the inauguration. The president-elect also plans to sign an executive order focused on Alaska that aims to boost energy production and a memorandum detailing a governmentwide approach to bringing down inflation, according to the Trump team.

Advertisement

Trump promised during the campaign to declare a “national energy emergency,” which could unlock additional executive powers.

In his “unleashing American energy” executive order, Trump will target “the red tape and the burdensome regulations that have held back our economy,” the incoming White House official said. That order will target Biden’s electric vehicle policies as well as policies that affect products including showerheads, gas stoves and dishwashers, the person said.

The Alaska-specific order will focus on the state’s natural resource potential, the official told reporters.

Trump is also expected to order the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and Mount Denali in Alaska to “Mount McKinley,” the New York Post reported Monday. Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted that story on the social media platform X.

Trump also plans to sign an executive order to end diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs within the federal government, incoming White House officials told reporters Monday.

The push will be aimed “to dismantle the DEI bureaucracy,” said one incoming Trump White House official, which will include environmental justice programs, equity-related grants and equity action plans.

The incoming president plans to sign another executive order to establish the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a government-downsizing bid that Trump said would be led by Elon Musk, Semafor reported. Leavitt also posted that story Monday.