Trump declares an energy emergency

President Trump has declared an energy emergency, which his team has said will unlock additional powers to start production.

The declaration unlocks additional authorities to allow the US to bolster energy production, an official told reporters on Monday morning.

However, it wasn’t immediately clear what powers the order unlocks.

Speaking about the statement from behind his desk in the Oval Office, Trump said “this means you can do what you have to do to get out of this problem.”

“And we have this kind of emergency,” he added.

If Trump invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, it could halt trade in foreign energy sources in the US, said Mark Nevitt, a professor at Emory University School of Law. he told The Hill.

Use of other laws would invoke additional authorities. Amy Stein, a professor at the University of Florida, has written that, depending on the law a president uses to invoke the emergency, his broad range of new powers could include things like emergency measures to protect the reliability of the network and authorize the purchase of emergency gas supplies. .

Invocation of the Defense Production Act, which can be used to speed up manufacturing, is also possible, Nevitt said.

“The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that’s why I’m also declaring a national energy emergency today. We’re going to drill, baby, we’re going to drill,” Trump said during his speech inaugural

“America is going to be a manufacturing nation again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we’re going to use it,” he said.

The Trump official said the emergency declaration came in response to high fuel prices.

The average price of gasoline in the United States is currently $3.13 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association.

It is currently well below the 2022 high that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but still higher than the average price during the first Trump administration. In 2019, prices an average of $2.60 per gallon. Experts attributed the rise in gas prices under former President Biden to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the post-pandemic recovery. Oil production under the Biden administration reached record highs, surpassing an average of 13 million barrels per day for the first time

The order comes as does Trumphe ordered a reversalof Biden’s efforts to protect certain areas from offshore drilling.

— Updated at 8:34 pm EST

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