"Trump to Declare National Energy Emergency on Inauguration Day"

Donald Trump, the President-elect of the United States, plans to declare a national emergency on his first day in office to overturn President Joe Biden's climate change policies and promote expanded energy production, Bloomberg News reported on the 19th (local time).

According to sources, Trump intends to take this action within hours of his inauguration to fulfill his campaign promise to increase U.S. energy production. They stated that Trump plans to enforce policy changes allowing new oil and gas development on federal lands and to order the rollback of the Biden administration's climate regulations. Such executive actions could impact the entire U.S. energy industry.

President-elect Donald Trump of the United States. Photo by EPA Yonhap News

It is not yet clear how Trump will utilize the national emergency declaration, but Bloomberg noted that it could grant special authority over crude oil transportation and alter electricity generation and transmission methods. During his campaign, he said that a national emergency declaration was necessary to address the surging demand caused by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and to increase production. He also referred to oil as "liquid gold" and emphasized expanding production.

On the same day, at a victory celebration held at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, Trump said, "We will use emergency powers to enable the nation, entrepreneurs, and wealthy individuals to build large AI factories," adding, "We need twice the energy we already have."

According to a Brennan Center report, declaring a national emergency allows the U.S. president to exercise up to 150 special powers to respond to hurricanes, terrorist attacks, and other unforeseen events. However, Bloomberg pointed out that it is unclear whether Trump will be able to achieve his goal of building more power plants by declaring a national emergency.

Mark P. Nevitt, an associate professor at Emory University School of Law, analyzed that Trump might declare a power grid security emergency using authorities included in the 2015 transportation law.

Meanwhile, during his first term, Trump attempted to invoke emergency powers under the Federal Power Act to prevent the closure of unprofitable coal and nuclear power plants but failed.