Trump is preparing a sweeping energy plan to boost gas exports and oil production, sources say

(The November 25 news story has been corrected to say that the US will become the world’s largest LNG exporter in 2023, not 2022 as stated in paragraph 12)

Jarrett Renshaw

(Reuters) – Donald Trump’s transition team is putting together a sweeping energy package to be rolled out within days of him taking office that would approve export permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects and increase oil drilling off the U.S. coast and on land. federal states, two sources familiar with the plans said.

The energy checklist largely reflects Trump’s campaign promises, but the plan to roll out the list on Day 1 ensures that oil and gas production will stand alongside immigration as a pillar of Trump’s early agenda.

Trump, a Republican, also plans to roll back some of his Democratic predecessor’s key climate laws and regulations, such as tax credits for electric vehicles and new clean power plant standards aimed at phasing out coal and natural gas, the sources said.

The first priority will be to lift President Joe Biden’s election-year pause on new LNG export permits and speedily approve pending permits, the sources said. Trump will also try to speed up drilling permits on federal lands and quickly revive five-year drilling plans off the U.S. coast to include more lease sales, the sources said.

In a symbolic gesture, Trump would try to approve the Keystone pipeline, an issue that has become an environmental flashpoint and was stopped after Biden revoked a key permit on his first day in office. But any company seeking to implement a multibillion-dollar program to transport Canadian crude oil to the United States will have to start from scratch, as things like easements have been returned to landowners.

“The American people can count on President Trump to use his executive authority from day one to deliver on the promises he made to them on the campaign trail,” Trump transition spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said in a statement.

Many elements of the plan will take time to move through Congress or the national regulatory system. Trump has vowed to declare an energy emergency on his first day in office, which could test whether he can bypass those barriers and make some changes on an accelerated schedule.

Trump will also call on Congress to provide new funding so he can replenish the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, created as an emergency supply of crude oil and which was depleted under Biden to help deal with price spikes caused by the Ukraine crisis and high inflation during the pandemic. Replenishing reserves will increase short-term oil demand and stimulate US production.

Trump is also expected to put pressure on the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based energy watchdog that advises industrialized countries on energy policy. Republicans have criticized the IEA’s focus on emissions reduction policies. Trump’s advisers have urged him to withhold the funding unless the IEA takes a more pro-oil stance.

“I have personally pushed Trump and his team in general to put pressure on the IEA to return to its core mission of energy security and move away from greenwashing,” said Dan Eberhart, CEO of oil services company Canary.

TRUMP ‘PLANS TO STRENGTHEN’ IN LNG

In January, Biden suspended new LNG export permits to study environmental impacts, an election-year move aimed at making gains among the party’s Green voting bloc. Without export permits, developers will not be able to implement multi-year plans to build new projects. The deferred projects include CP2 Venture Global, Commonwealth LNG and the Energy Transfer complex in Lake Charles, all of which are in Louisiana.

The United States is the world’s largest producer of natural gas and became the No. 1 exporter of LNG in 2023 as Europe looked to America to give up huge energy supplies from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

The Biden administration has promised to release the environmental study before Trump takes office on Jan. 20, but it will have no impact on the new administration, the people said.

“The LNG issue has been put on hold and he plans to take a decisive approach to the issue,” one of the sources said.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved five U.S. LNG export projects but is still awaiting Energy Department approval, federal records show.

Biden’s pause also halted necessary environmental reviews, some of which may still be needed for the Department of Energy’s five pending permits to withstand legal scrutiny.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR DRILLING ON THE SEA AND ON FEDERAL LANDS

Trump will seek to speed up drilling off the US coast and on federal lands.

The average time to obtain permits for drilling on federal and Indian lands averaged 258 days in the first three years of the Biden administration, compared with 172 days during the four years of the Trump presidency, according to federal data.

Trump is expected to speed up permitting, hold sales more frequently and offer land that is more likely to produce oil, the sources said.

Despite the delay in issuing permits, Biden’s Interior Department has issued on average more permits for onshore oil drilling than the first Trump administration, federal data shows.

Oil production on federal lands and waters reached record levels in 2023, and gas production reached its highest level since 2016, according to federal data.

Drilling activity on federal lands and waters accounts for about a quarter of U.S. oil production and 12% of gas production.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Additional reporting by Nicola Groom and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Trump is preparing a sweeping energy plan to boost gas exports and oil production, sources say

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