On the first day of his second term, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was fulfilling his campaign promise to “drill, baby, drill” by declaring a “national energy emergency.” The declaration seeks to spur the “identification, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, and generation” of every energy source except for wind, solar, battery storage, and improved efficiency.

But what exactly does this mean, and how much damage could it do to local communities, energy prices, the global climate, and the nation’s leadership in the green energy transition? Quite a lot, a panel of energy policy experts warned on Wednesday.

“These executive orders and this administration are sending us down exactly the wrong path,” said senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center Megan Gibson. “By attempting to fabricate a national energy emergency, these orders set the stage toward increased fossil fuel extraction, transmission, use, and export. This is all over cleaner, more affordable technologies that we have and are commercially scalable.”

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, warned that “the threat is extremely real, and here right now, that Trump is going to seek to push unneeded fossil fuel projects.” Trump gave himself a major tool to accomplish this in the declaration by evoking national security…

While Trump tried to use national security justifications to speed fossil fuel development during his first term, he was stymied in part by opposition within government agencies. That is less likely to be the case now. “There is no question that when you add national security designations to civilian energy infrastructure projects, you’re putting in the crosshairs any civil servant or citizen who seeks to deviate from Trump’s line”…

Cutting Corners

Another provision of the emergency declaration being monitored by advocates is Section 4, which calls on heads of agencies to alert the Army Corps of Engineers to projects they want to see prioritized. The Corps plays an important role in issuing 404 permits for any infrastructure that is built through or beneath a body of water. It also has the authority to rush its permitting process—including by waving or truncating a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review—in the case of an emergency.

Shortly after Trump’s declaration, the Army Corps listed several “emergency”-designated projects on its website. However, David Bookbinder, director of law and policy at the Environmental Integrity Project, pointed out, “none of those projects, not a single one, meets the Corps’ own definition of what an emergency is.”

The Corps can rush a project through only if not doing so poses an immediate threat to life, property, or economic well-being, and it has historically only done so in the aftermath of natural disasters such as floods or hurricanes.

“In the long run, the question is how many times is the Corps going to make groups sue them?” “No one has ever tried to speed up permitting on the basis of a national energy emergency, let alone a clearly fictitious one,” Bookbinder said.

The Army Corps immediately removed the emergency designations of projects on its website once they were discovered, and groups including Bookbinder’s have filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the Corps to find out what projects other agencies have told it to fast-track. Those requests are due around the beginning of April. “As soon as they try permitting one of these projects, cutting the corners and speeding up a permit by designating it as, quote, an emergency, that permit will be challenged,” Bookbinder said. “And in the long run, the question is how many times is the Corps going to make groups sue them?”…

In the long-term, advocates say, the administration may attempt to use the Corps’ ability to rush “emergency” projects in order to bypass NEPA altogether, ignore court orders that try to stop it, and undermine agencies that push back.

While the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is supposed to be independent, for example, Trump on Tuesday fired the two Democratic commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission. “We are very concerned that should Trump perceive any roadblocks at FERC to his energy emergency declaration that he would have no qualms forcibly removing independent FERC commissioners from their seats and replace them with compliant commissioners,” Slocum said. “So this is not bluster.” Ultimately, Slocum added, “we are in an era right now where the only norm is Trump is going to violate it.”

Who Benefits?

While the Trump administration is trying to rush through fossil fuel projects, the panelists were clear that his energy agenda will not benefit the majority of U.S. communities and ratepayers. “If we continue down this path, this self-destructive path, we will miss out on an opportunity to build a vibrant, sustainable energy economy that benefits all Americans, that will actually secure our national energy independence, and would position our country for long-term economic success,” Gibson said… “Under Trump, fossil fuel corporations will accelerate the transfer of wealth from consumers to billionaires while exposing millions of Americans to more pollution and delaying the transition to clean energy for as long as possible,” he continued…

“We truly urge policymakers, stakeholders, and the public to see these executive orders for what they truly are: an unnecessary and counterproductive retreat to outdated energy strategies,” Gibson said. “The real emergency here isn’t a lack of fossil fuel extraction, transmission, or export. It’s lack of vision and courage, and competent governance to embrace the modern clean energy economy we know we need and deserve.”

(https://www.commondreams.org/)