On the initial day of his renewed presidency, Donald Trump highlighted some ambitious energy and environmental strategies that sharply contrast with the climate policies implemented by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
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These announced plans include proclaiming a “national energy emergency,” reversing the vehicle emissions standards set forth by the previous administration, and retracting the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, a significant international accord aimed at mitigating global warming effects.
On energy
Addressing the nation during his second inaugural speech on Monday afternoon, Trump declared his intent to announce a national energy emergency starting his first day by emphasizing increased drilling activities.
Trump expressed that the U.S. possesses the world’s largest reserves of oil and gas and plans to utilize them extensively. His vision includes reducing energy prices, replenishing strategic reserves completely, and exporting American energy globally, which he believes will restore national wealth through these “liquid gold” resources.
In 2019, during Trump’s initial term, the U.S. marked its emergence as a net energy exporter, a trend that continued under Biden. By 2024, the U.S. achieved a record high in crude oil production, averaging 13.2 million barrels per day, as reported by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA’s recent outlook indicates a further rise in crude oil output expected this year.
Furthermore, the U.S. already holds the position as the top exporter of liquefied natural gas worldwide, based on EIA data. The Biden administration had temporarily halted the sanctioning of new LNG export facilities earlier this year, with several projects pending at that juncture. Prior to his inauguration, Trump’s administration expressed their intent to lift this suspension and enhance LNG exports.
On EV standards
Trump also said Monday that he would end the Green New Deal and revoke the electric vehicle mandate, in a statement that references Biden-era rules from the Environmental Protection Agency regulating tailpipe emissions from both standard and heavy-duty vehicles.
With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers, Trump said. In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.
Trump’s comments misrepresent the Biden-era rules, which were not a mandate for automakers to manufacture electric vehicles and did not require Americans to buy any specific type of car. The standards, released in March 2024, established an average of allowed emissions across a vehicle manufacturers entire fleet of offered vehicles. They affected only newly manufactured cars from model years 2027 to 2032.
At the time, Biden administration officials emphasized that there were multiple pathways to compliance with the new tailpipe standards, including the use of improved internal combustion engines, hybrids and fully electric cars.
On the Paris climate accords
Trump said before he took office that he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Day 1 — and he fulfilled that promise as one of his first actions in office on Monday night. As he officially withdrew, signing executive orders from the Capital One Arena, he claimed that the move would save America “a trillion dollars.”
The Paris Agreement was originally ratified at the annual United Nations Climate Conference (also known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP) in 2015. It intended to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels a metric scientists believed would significantly reduce the impacts of climate change.
The world exceeded this metric for the first time in 2024, which was the warmest year on record according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
During his first term in office, Trump withdrew from the agreement; however, Biden re-entered it on his first day in office. The Biden administration implemented a slate of policies meant to address the country’s contribution to climate change and help mitigate emissions.
Both priorities are widely expected to change under the new Trump administration.
With another withdrawal, it seems Trump renders moot the Nationally Determined Contribution released by the Biden administration last month. That NDC, required by the Paris Agreement to be updated every five years, claimed the U.S. was setting a goal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions more than 60% by the year 2035.
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