Trump Emergency Order Accelerates Oil and Gas Permitting
The Trump administration has shortened the approval procedure for new oil and gas projects to just 28 days—at most—from several years under the national energy emergency that the White House declared earlier this year.
The new “emergency permitting procedures”, per the Department of the Interior, will cover not just oil and gas but uranium and critical minerals as well. The full list also includes coal, biofuels, geothermal energy, and kinetic hydropower.
“The United States cannot afford to wait,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said. “President Trump has made it clear that our energy security is national security, and these emergency procedures reflect our unwavering commitment to protecting both.”
“We are cutting through unnecessary delays to fast-track the development of American energy and critical minerals—resources that are essential to our economy, our military readiness, and our global competitiveness,” Burgum also said.
The Trump administration’s focus on developing all energy segments with the exception of wind has frustrated the transition advocacy and technology sector considerably, with Reuters reporting the climate NGO industry was already hiring lawyers to take the fight over hydrocarbons and climate regulations to court.
“They really are kicking it into high gear now,” Dan Goldbeck, director of regulatory policy at conservative think tank American Action Forum, told Reuters. “They are trying to push some of these legal doctrines a bit to see if they can implement a new policy framework.”
The publication noted that most of the Trump administration’s moves in the energy area test the limits of the Administrative Procedure Act from 1946, which stipulates that federal agencies must publish notices of regulatory proposals and final regulations, and include an option for public comments on these. This may well be the reason why President Trump is using the emergency option to pass relevant regulatory changes.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
