Trump's Push for 'Energy Dominance' Could Hit Roadblocks

President-elect Trump is set to create a National Energy Council that he says will establish American "energy dominance" around the world as he seeks to boost US oil and gas drilling and move away from President Biden's focus on climate change. The energy council—to be led by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump's choice to head the Interior Department—will be key in Trump's pledge to "drill, drill, drill" and sell more oil and other energy sources to allies in Europe and around the globe, the AP reports.

• The new council will be granted sweeping authority over federal agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, and transportation, with a mandate to cut bureaucratic red tape, enhance private sector investments, and focus on innovation instead of "totally unnecessary regulation," Trump said.

• But Trump's energy wishes are likely to run into real-world limits. For one, US oil production under Biden is already at record levels. The federal government cannot force companies to drill for more oil, and production increases could lower prices and reduce profits.
• A call for energy dominance—a term Trump also used in his first term as president—"is an opportunity, not a requirement'' for the oil industry to move forward on drilling projects under terms that are likely to be more favorable to industry than those offered by Biden, said energy analyst Kevin Book.
• Whether Trump achieves energy dominance—however he defines it—"comes down to decisions by private companies, based on how they see supply-demand balances in the global marketplace,'' says Book, managing partner at ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington research firm. Don't expect an immediate influx of new oil rigs dotting the national landscape, he says.

• Trump's bid to boost oil supplies—and lower US prices—is complicated by his threat this week to impose 25% import tariffs on Canada and Mexico, two of the largest sources of US oil imports. The US oil industry warned the tariffs could raise prices and even harm national security, since "maintaining the free flow of energy products across our borders is critical for North American energy security and US consumers."
• Dustin Meyer, senior vice president of policy, economics, and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, called the new energy council "a good thing" for the US economy and trade. "Conceptually it makes a lot of sense to have as much coordination as possible," he said. Still, "market dynamics will always be the key'' for any potential increase in energy production, Meyer said.

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• Jonathan Elkind, a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, called energy dominance a "deliberately vague concept" but said, "It's hard to see how (Trump) can push more oil into an already saturated market."
• Elkind and other experts said they hope the new energy council will move beyond oil to focus on renewable energy such as wind, solar, and geothermal power, as well as nuclear. Trump has played down risks from climate change and pledged to rescind unspent money in the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden's landmark climate and health care bill. He also said he will stop offshore wind development when he returns to the White House in January. Even so, his announcement of the energy council says he will "expand ALL forms of energy production to grow our Economy and create good-paying jobs."

(More President-elect Trump stories.)