The lame-duck Biden-Harris administration has begun working to undermine President-elect Donald Trump's energy agenda after he handed Vice President Kamala Harris a crushing defeat in Tuesday's election. [emphasis, links added]
Less than 48 hours after Trump won decisive Electoral College and popular vote victories, Federal agencies are taking action to disrupt Trump's plans to expand and unfreeze liquefied natural gas (LNG) export approvals and drill for more oil and gas on U.S. soilAccording to reports from Bloomberg News and CNN.
The Biden-Harris administration suspended approvals of LNG export hubs in January and took several actions to limit energy production on government-controlled lands, policies that Trump had vigorously opposed until November.
Government justifies suspension of approval of LNG exports as regulators need to conduct a new study to review emissions impacts of LNG exportsEnergy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in May that the new analysis would be released sometime in early 2025.
However, the Department of Energy (DOE) is now reportedly rushing to complete the study by the end of November, which could create legal problems for the export hub project Trump promised to approve, according to Bloomberg.
If the Department of Energy’s upcoming analysis finds that additional LNG exports are not in the public interest or otherwise imposes new conditions, The incoming Trump administration's export approvals may be challenged in court, According to Bloomberg.
It takes the Trump administration about a year to release a new study, or about a month to meaningfully revise it.
If a study published by the Biden-Harris Energy Department finds that additional LNG exports are not in the public interest, the incoming Trump administration is likely to largely ignore it and approve new projects, although developers may still Exposed to legal risks.
Notably, one government watchdog accused the Department of Energy of starting this new study in 2023 and effectively burying it because the draft might show: The final version does not conclude that a suspension of approval is warranted..
Liquefied natural gas exports produce significantly more emissions than coal produced by domestic mining for energy, according to a questionable study by Cornell University professor Robert Howarth that has also influenced some within the Biden White House. people.
Opening up LNG exports isn't the only major campaign promise on energy policy that Biden and Harris bureaucrats are trying to undermine in the administration's final days.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 passed when Trump took office Authorizes two fossil fuel development lease sales in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)According to CNN, an area in Alaska is believed to hold significant oil reserves.
The law requires the second sale to occur before the end of 2024, and the Biden-Harris administration said Wednesday it would only lease the minimum 400,000 acres required by the statute.
“The 2017 tax law requires a second lease sale and we will continue to comply with the law,” an Interior Department spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Biden-Harris administration officials have also begun adopting various other “Trump-proof” rules, regulations and policies in policy areas such as international affairs.
Trump and his allies have promised to take control of what they believe will be a federal bureaucracy once he officially takes power on January 20, 2025.
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