Updates with details throughout
President Donald Trump today signed an executive order declaring a "national energy emergency" and said he plans to impose 25pc tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico on 1 February.
Returning to the White House for a second term, Trump signed a series of executive orders on energy and trade that he said will restore "common sense" to US policy. His orders aim to expedite permitting of energy infrastructure, tackle inflation, roll back climate programs put in place under former president Joe Biden and pursue a "drill, baby, drill" energy policy.
In declaring a national energy emergency, Trump's order contends the Biden administration left a "precariously inadequate and intermittent energy supply, and an increasingly unreliable grid" that required swift action.
Trump also froze all federal regulations, placed a temporary hold on hiring non-military federal workers, rescinded 78 Biden executive actions and memoranda and began rolling back Biden's climate legacy.
"I'm immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off," Trump said at a rally held after his second inaugural ceremony.
Trump's declaration of an "energy emergency" could bolster the legal rationale for some of energy policies and plans to expedite permitting. Trump also said he plans to end the "Green New Deal" — a reference to climate programs enacted under Biden — and revoke an "electric vehicle mandate" he said is threatening the US auto manufacturing sector.
Trump also vowed to begin an "overhaul" of the US trade system to protect domestic workers and reiterated his support for tariffs, which he sees as a way to raise government revenue and support domestic manufacturing.
"Tariffs are going to make us rich as hell," Trump said. They are "going to bring our country's businesses back that left us".
While Trump is reiterating his threat to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico, oil industry officials have warned such a move could disrupt the nearly 4mn b/d of crude the US imports from Canada.
Trump stopped short of promised to erect tariffs on all US imports, saying: "We're not ready for that."
On foreign policy, Trump said the US would "reclaim its rightful place" as the most powerful country in the world and reiterated plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
Trump also promised still-unspecified actions to take control of the US-built Panama Canal in response to what he says has been unfair treatment of US ships, a claim that Panamanian president Jose Raul Mulino has rejected.
"We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back," Trump said during his second inaugural address.
Trump signed an order to ease drilling restrictions in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, while also prioritizing the development of the proposed 20mn t/yr Alaska LNG export terminal.
Trump also said he wants to refill the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which is at 55pc of its capacity with 394mn bl of crude in storage, "right to the top". Refilling the SPR would require the US Congress to appropriate $32bn at current prices, to offset the costs of canceling 100mn bl of upcoming mandatory crude sales and buying about 300mn bl of crude.
Trump signed an order to rescind a series of climate-related orders Biden had issued, measures the new administration says places "undue burdens" on energy production.
And he imposed a temporary moratorium on leasing acreage in federal waters for wind projects. "We're not going to do the wind thing," Trump said. That drew an outcry from offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward, whose executive director Hillary Bright said an emergency should require unleashing "all necessary sources of American energy — including offshore wind".
During his campaign, Trump promised to cut the price of energy by 50pc within 12 months of taking office. But with regular grade gasoline averaging close to $3/USG and Henry Hub natural gas prices less $4/mmBtu this month, such a dramatic cut in prices would be difficult to achieve without causing major disruptions to industry. Environmentalists and Democratic-led states are also preparing to file lawsuits challenging Trump's deregulatory actions, a strategy they used during his first term with mixed success.
Trump was sworn in in a relatively small ceremony inside the US Capitol, after calling off a more traditional, outdoor inauguration because of temperatures that were hovering around 23° F. Among those in attendance was Telsa chief executive Elon Musk, who spent more than $250mn to help elect Trump and is chairing a cost-cutting advisory panel.
After being sworn in, Trump formally nominated his cabinet members, leaving it up to the Republican-controlled US Senate to hold confirmation votes. Trump also named Republicans to lead 15 independent agencies.
Trump named Mark Christie as chairman of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Mark Uyeda as acting chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission; and Patrick Fuchs as chair of the US Surface Transportation Board. Caroline Pham became acting chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission through a vote of its members.
