At the time of this writing, Donald Trump is still president-elect, but there have already been a flurry of announcements coming out of the president’s social media accounts and his team that give some indications as to what his plans are for the energy sector. For electricity, it sounds like the administration’s emphasis will be on producing more affordable and reliable power.
As many incoming presidential transition teams do, Trump said he plans to reshuffle the way the White House and federal agencies approach energy with a new council. President Biden’s administration, for example, created the National Climate Task Force, among other things.
November 15, Trump posted to Truth Social, a social media outlet owned in part by Trump, that his second administration would form a National Energy Council, consisting of all agencies and departments that deal with energy production, generation, distribution, regulation, etc.
Trump’s pick to lead the Department of the Interior, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, will lead the council. Burgum formerly advised the second Trump campaign on energy policy. Goals of the council will be “cutting red tape,” encouraging private sector investment in the energy sector and focusing on innovation, Trump wrote.
In the same announcement, Trump wrote that Burgum would help usher in a new age of American peace and prosperity through domestic resource extraction. Another goal mentioned was increasing baseload power generation to help reduce electric bills for individuals and businesses as well as prevent blackouts and brownouts.
Other likely members of the National Energy Council could be Fox Business personality and former U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, Trump’s pick for the Department of Transportation; Republican fundraiser and businessman Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Commerce; and former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, Trump’s candidate to serve as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator.
In statements since the election, Trump said his administration will focus on “energy dominance,” with an eye toward driving down costs, winning technology arms races with China and others, and expanding American soft power to end wars across the world.
In brief, Trump’s picks so far point to slashing regulations, pushing for more energy extraction and production, and focusing on cheaper electricity. Trump takes office a critical time for energy, as electricity costs climb, renewable capacity ramps up, climate worries intensify and power grid infrastructure ages rapidly.
Chris Wright at the DOE
Another member of this new council will be Colorado energy CEO Chris Wright, who heads up one of the world’s largest fracking operations. Wright is Trump’s selection to lead the U.S. Department of Energy.
Wright replaces Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the current energy secretary appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2020. Where Granholm focused on the Biden administration’s goals of achieving net zero carbon dioxide by 2050, Wright has a history of making climate skeptical remarks, drank fracking liquid on camera in 2019, and said the country is not in the midst of an energy transition.
In a statement after his nomination, Wright said he will further the mission of providing reliable and affordable energy to the U.S. and beyond. Trump called Wright a pioneer of the shale gas revolution in the U.S., which led to a boost in natural gas production via hydraulic fracturing extraction.
In his public statements, Wright says that oil and gas companies are voluntarily cutting their greenhouse gas emissions. At an oil and gas conference in August 2021, he said his industry had achieved the largest gross reduction of any industry thanks to investments in safer pipelines, cutting gas flares and better detection of methane leaks.
At the same conference, Wright made a point of saying “there is no climate crisis.” He says fossil fuels are bettering human lives and says seeking out markets in developing countries will benefit them, eliminating the need to cook meals or heat homes with dirtier fuels.
Wright is an engineer by training and has degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering. According to a biography from Liberty Energy, Wright founded a hydraulic fracturing company called Pinnacle Technologies in 1992. He moved into shale gas production in 2006, becoming the chair of Stroud Energy, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010. Liberty focused on exploration and extraction in the Bakken oil fields of Montana and North Dakota. Liberty Midstream, another arm of the company, is a provider of midstream services.
Wright is on the board of EMX Royalty Corp., a royalties payment firm for mineral rights. Wright also sits on the board of Oklo, Inc., a Santa Clara, California-based advanced nuclear energy technology company. Oklo’s Aurora nuclear reactor is a concept fission powerhouse that the DOE gave a permit for testing in 2020.
The company said the plant would use recycled low-enriched uranium from breeder reactors to generate power at a commercial level.
In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Trump said traditional nuclear power plants are “too big and too complex and too expensive,” pointing to proposed new reactor projects that were canceled during his first administration. He went on to say that small modular nuclear reactors could hold promise for generating clean energy.
SMRs remain in the pilot stage in the U.S., although companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon are investing in the technology, seeing them as a potential way to provide reliable electricity to data centers, the growth of which is currently behind a massive increase in electricity need.
The DOE is charged with overseeing the energy supply in the U.S., research into new energy sources, cleaning up Cold War-era environmental hazards and running the network of 17 National Laboratories. It also maintains the nuclear weapons in the U.S. and works toward nuclear non-proliferation.
Lee Zeldin at the EPA
Zeldin, the candidate to lead the EPA, said he plans to support Trump’s agenda of rolling back regulations and promoting U.S. energy production while protecting public health and the environment.
"Looking forward to collaborating with her to make the EPA work best for the American people!” Zeldin posted on social media. The Senate, now controlled by Republicans, will consider Zeldin’s nomination in early 2025.
“We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” Zeldin wrote.
In his first term, Trump first selected a pair of attorneys, first Scott Pruitt, who resigned in 2018 amidst ethics investigations, and then Andrew R. Wheeler. If confirmed, Zeldin will replace Michael S. Regan, President Biden’s choice to head the EPA. In 2020, Regan worked with Duke Energy on coal ash cleanup.
During Trump’s first term, Zeldin ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York and defended Trump during his first impeachment hearings. A veteran of the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Corps and former New York senator, Zeldin served on the House Conservative Climate Caucus and the Climate Solutions Caucus.
Like Trump, Zeldin opposes the Paris Agreement, and as a candidate for N.Y. governor, he pledged to overturn a ban on hydraulic fracturing. Zeldin also voted against Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which invested billions into energy transition infrastructure and research.
Environmental groups reacted to Zeldin’s selection with alarm, with the Sierra Club calling the pick “unqualified” and added this was evidence of Trump’s plan to once again, sell our health, our communities, our jobs, and our future out to corporate polluters.”
The stated mission of the EPA is to protect human health and the environment. Much of the agency’s authority to regulate the electricity sector is derived via the Clean Air Act and its amendments, which over the past decade has been challenged by a conservative-majority Supreme Court.
The EPA’s power plant rule, for example, proposes new carbon pollution standards for coal and natural gas-fired power plants. Several industry groups are suing to stay the enforcement of the rule, which aims to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, fine particulates, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other air pollutants.
Additionally, the agency announced tougher rules for the neurotoxin mercury emitted from power plant smokestacks and will require safer disposal of toxic wastewater and coal ash, which are byproducts of generating electricity.
The rule, expected to go into effect in 2030, allows power plants to use carbon capture to reduce their emissions while continuing to burn fossil fuels. In addition to the new standards, power plants will have to install continuous monitoring systems for emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants like arsenic, chromium, cobalt and nickel.
EPA power plant rules also state companies should use carbon capture sequestration (CCS) technology at plants that burn fossil fuels. However, there are doubts as to how practical this technology is for widespread use.
Doug Burgum at Interior
Burgum’s career so far has focused on the finance and fossil fuels businesses, in addition to his governorship of North Dakota, an energy-producing state. Burgum is a co-founder of venture capital firm Arthur Ventures, which has operations across the Midwest.
After winning the North Dakota governorship, Burgum focused on energy policy, calling for carbon neutrality by 2030. Carbon capture and sequestration technology and using stored carbon for enhanced oilfield extraction was a cornerstone of this policy.
In January 2023, Burgum joined a group of North Dakota officials threatening to sue the state of Minnesota and Gov. Tim Walz — Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the election she lost to Trump — over that state’s energy policy banning the purchase of electricity generated from carbon-emitting sources.
Like Trump, Burgum is a fan of tall buildings. As a founder of the Kilbourne Group, a Fargo-based property developer, Burgum proposed a 23-story building, completed in 2020, in that city. Burgum has one foot in the technology sector as well, having worked for Microsoft.
According to the DOE’s Energy Information Administration, North Dakota is the third-largest crude oil producer in the U.S. and has large coal and natural gas reserves. While a large hydropower facility and a growing installed wind power capacity makes about a third of North Dakota’s electricity renewable, the state still relies heavily on natural gas and coal for its electricity. The state is also a producer of biofuels and ethanol.
In past statements, Burgum criticized government support for electric vehicles and infrastructure. He also called for more mining for rare earth metals on Bureau of Land Management land. He has also supported building pipelines for carbon capture.
The centerpieces of energy policy for Trump’s second term have mostly to do with oil and gas production, with frequent mentions of drilling and “unleashing” U.S. energy production. For the DOI, this presumably will involve more extraction on the millions of acres managed by the federal government, potentially including nature preserves and national parks.
The Biden administration was marked by an emphasis on electrification and clean energy funding and research, particularly via the Inflation Reduction Act, which offered tac credits to renewable energy and clean energy R&D. Trump’s energy policies would be a reversal of much of this, with the president elect saying unspent investments in clean energy could be halted.
The DOI is important to the energy sector as it oversees public lands, mineral rights, as well as lands used by Indigenous people, national parks and wildlife refuges.
Biden’s Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is a proponent of offshore wind development and the administration’s clean energy goals.
Under Haaland, the DOI approved 41 renewable energy projects, including some of the largest solar and transmission developments such as the Greenlink West Transmission Project, a 472-mile-long project in Nevada that will connect clean energy sources to power 1.2 million homes, and the Libra Solar Project, according to a release from the DOI.
The Biden administration also saw the U.S.’s first commercial scale offshore wind projects, with 10 major projects approved by the DOI. Trump, who famously opposed an offshore wind project off the coast of his Scotland golf course, has promised to push back on supports for offshore wind. At a rally in May, Trump called offshore wind “horrible,” and “the most expensive energy there is.”
Donald Trump had two secretaries of the Interior during his first term. His first pick, Ryan Zinke, was a former Navy SEAL, business development consultant, property manager and former U.S. Representative from Montana, resigned in 2019 amidst ethics investigations. Zinke’s tenure at DOI saw federally managed lands opened for resource extraction.
Colorado attorney and oil industry lobbyist David Bernhardt was Trump’s second Interior Secretary in his first term, a veteran of George W. Bush’s DOI and prior deputy secretary for Trump. As secretary, Bernhardt ordered plans for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which were halted and eventually canceled by the Biden administration.
