• The Alliance highlights some of the policies and details of the Unleashing American Energy Executive Order
• The Trump Department of the Interior and Environmental Protection Agency clearly have their work cut out for them
• The Alliance stands ready to help the new administration roll back regulatory overreach and unleash American oil and natural gas

DENVER – After reviewing the energy Executive Orders issued on inauguration day, Western Energy Alliance (Alliance), a trade association representing oil and natural gas producers in the West, offers its assessment of the Unleashing American Energy order. The order is a clear statement that energy is a major policy priority of President Trump and his policies are 180 degrees from the former president’s. The Alliance eagerly looks forward to supporting the new administration as it sets about implementing the myriad policy actions that will flow from the order.

“The energy EO addresses both the very high-level policy changes necessary as well as the nitty gritty regulatory levers that need to be pulled to get the goals implemented effectively,” said Kathleen Sgamma, President of Western Energy Alliance. “It’s clear that the team that put together the executive order is very savvy about what needs to be done to unwind the regulatory damage of the Biden administration.

“We’re especially excited about the political will to get on with LNG exports and back to regular order on federal oil and natural gas leasing and development, a specialty of the Alliance. In light of all the last-minute actions at the very end of the dying administration, the broad regulatory reassessment is crucial. Several regulatory matters were hastily thrown over the fence to tie up the new administration. The Trump administration has the authority to review and correct many of these actions, and the EO clearly expresses the willingness to do so.

“Several detailed actions are also of particular interest to the Alliance. The scrutiny of the Biden National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, which distorted Congress’s bipartisan NEPA reforms in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, should result in undoing them and enabling infrastructure and energy projects to proceed more sensibly. The ambitious climate change provisions are interesting as well. Clearly the new EPA is not afraid to roll up its sleeves and do some very detailed technical work to excise policies with no basis in law.

“We’ll note the vindictiveness of the Biden EPA in throwing the Ute Indian Tribe under the bus with the very unnecessary acceleration of the ozone designation in Utah’s Uinta Basin. The action showed the Biden administration was only concerned with virtue signaling about environmental justice. Otherwise disadvantaged communities like the Utes would be in dire economic straits without oil and natural gas production, yet the action threatens to severely curtail development in the basin. The Tribe has been working in good faith to reduce ozone through a deliberative, orderly process based on scientific data, only to be stabbed in the back solely for reasons of hostility to the Trump administration. The Tribe has formally filed for reconsideration with EPA, and we urge the Trump administration to prioritize their plight,” concluded Sgamma.

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