Latest news with #EnergySummit
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump energy adviser slams renewables, says focus is on fossil fuels
President Donald Trump is a fan of fossil fuels who is determined to boost oil and gas and turn away from renewables — regardless of what some energy executives, fellow Republicans or even Elon Musk have to say on the matter, one of his top energy advisers said Tuesday. "What I would say is the president is in charge," said Jarrod Agen, a deputy assistant to the president and executive director of the White House's National Energy Dominance Council, at POLITICO's annual Energy Summit. "The last thing we want is in the short term to have any problems with the grid,' he added. Trump believes that fossil fuels got a 'bad deal' under former President Joe Biden, and the current administration will continue to double down on traditional energy, Agen said. That is despite economic uncertainty brought on during Trump's term that has roiled energy markets. The shaky outlook for oil was punctuated Tuesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which predicted that domestic crude production will fall next year after U.S. oil reached record output under Biden. Trump created the National Energy Dominance Council early in his second term, with goals of boosting energy production and reliability. Trump also campaigned on slashing energy costs, and he has taken credit for lower gasoline prices tied in part to an oil price slump associated with global economic worries. Supporters have credited the energy council for a wide array of moves in the last five months, from aggressively accelerating environmental permits to opening up more land for drilling. But the council's exact role in such actions remains unclear. The council is something of a black box, with no public meetings. The group's first director left weeks after joining the administration. And critics have questioned its usefulness. Agen said the council operates with a startup culture and has a 'tiger team' of about 10 staffers. Working out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, he said, they coordinate energy policy across the federal bureaucracy and home in on specific projects, meeting with companies to understand what hurdles they face. 'We can serve as a voice in the White House that can call over to these different departments and say, 'Hey, this is a priority, this is something the White House wants to get done, something the president wants to get done. What's the hold up over there?'' Agen said. Agen added that the council has experts in sectors ranging from oil and gas to pipelines, mining, critical minerals, electric grids and coal — but not solar. 'The president's priorities are around turning around fossil fuels,' Agen said, specifying that the administration wants to see new natural gas pipelines in Alaska and in the Northeast, as well as natural gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump renamed the Gulf of America via executive order earlier this year. Agen's comments Tuesday were a rare public look at the council's staff and inner workings, which have largely been out of public view. And they clashed with some industry voices and technology executives, including Musk — the Tesla CEO and a former Trump adviser — who have argued that that the U.S. should strive to be a leader in clean energy innovation. Agen joined Interior this year as a senior aide to Secretary Doug Burgum, who chairs the National Energy Dominance Council. Agen previously worked for former Vice President Mike Pence. He left a job at Lockheed Martin earlier this year, according to his LinkedIn profile. Energy 'dominance' has been a main theme of Trump's second term, and he has wielded an emphasis on oil and gas to jettison clean energy programs and abandon climate goals. The administration has ordered certain coal plants to remain open, pushed for drilling in untouched lands in northern Alaska and has cut permitting timelines for traditional energy projects from years down to days. Earlier this month, Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin visited Alaska — along with Agen — to throw their support behind a planned natural gas pipeline that would cross the entire state. One goal of that project is potential gas exports to Asia. Agen said his experience visiting the North Slope made him want more drilling in Alaska. 'These are massive, barren lands of snow and ice,' he said. 'Where would we want to have the oil and gas come from? It's there.' Agen repeatedly dinged renewable energy Tuesday, despite its rapid growth in recent years and the push from numerous American allies to decarbonize in the face of looming scientific evidence of the harms from climate change. Agen said renewables are supported by tax breaks and 'can't stand on their own feet.' 'The president is not focused on wind and solar,' he said. 'They haven't proven that they can get off the ground.' Agen said nuclear power is a long-term priority for the administration, while increasing American energy production will help with trade conflicts. 'The more we can produce energy here and export it, that will be a huge benefit to us in these trade negotiations,' he said.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
EPA to propose rolling back climate rule for power plants Wednesday
The Trump administration will move Wednesday to repeal federal limits on power plant climate pollution, attacking the Biden era's most ambitious attempt to use regulations to rein in heat-trapping gases from the electric grid, according to six people familiar with the situation. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin will announce the repeal of the power plant carbon dioxide rule along with a separate regulation to curb hazardous air pollution such as mercury during an event at agency headquarters, the people said. The two repeal proposals are the most important EPA regulatory actions of President Donald Trump's second term to date. Without offering details, EPA said Tuesday that Zeldin will make a "major policy announcement" at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Scrapping the Biden-era power plant rule would effectively shelve regulations for the nation's second-biggest producer of climate pollution — the electricity sector — which accounts for one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse gases. The move will come one day after the executive director of Trump's National Energy Dominance Council, Jarrod Agen, defended the administration's focus on coal and natural gas for maintaining the reliability of the electric grid. Speaking at POLITICO's annual Energy Summit on Tuesday, Agen said Trump is not considering renewable sources such as solar power for the nation's energy mix, despite those technologies' support from some GOP lawmakers as well as business leaders such as Elon Musk. 'The president's priorities are around turning around fossil fuels,' Agen said. One of the people familiar with EPA's plans said the agency does not anticipate writing a replacement rule because it is "hopeful" the agency will prevail in a separate effort to unwind its 2009 declaration that greenhouse gases harm the public. That declaration, known as the endangerment finding, forms the legal basis for regulating those emissions. The two Clean Air Act rules that Zeldin will ditch were central to the Biden administration's power sector strategy. The climate rule aimed to curb greenhouse gases by requiring new gas-fired power plants and existing coal-fired units to capture and store their greenhouse gas emissions by the 2030s. EPA has said it plans to finalize repeal of the rules by the end of this year.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate Republican calls July 4 ‘false deadline' for megabill
Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), a moderate Republican, called July 4 a 'false deadline' for Republicans to pass their megabill and said it's more important for the Senate to get it done 'right' than fast. In an interview at Politico's Energy Summit in Washington on Tuesday, Curtis said he's confident the bill would eventually pass. But, he added, 'I can't tell you what it's going to look like or when it's going to pass.' He signaled a lightly less optimistic note on whether it would pass by the GOP's self-imposed July 4 deadline. 'Well, let me just say, I think a lot of us would be surprised if it passed by July 4,' Curtis said. 'I think that's a false deadline,' he added. 'I don't think that we need to put a specific deadline on it. Let's get it right.' Other GOP senators have also publicly and privately voiced doubts about meeting the July 4 deadline that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is shooting for as Senate Republicans remain divided on a number of hot-button issues. On Monday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he thinks the deadline is still realistic. 'We certainly hope, I believe, we can still meet that,' Johnson said. 'It's up to the Senate, the bill's in the Senate's hands now. But I spoke with Leader Thune as recently as last night, he's feeling very optimistic.' At Tuesday's summit, Curtis said he thinks the House-passed version unfairly rolls back some of the energy tax credits in Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). He said some of those tax credits 'have run their life cycle' but it's important to 'be thoughtful in how we phase them out.' 'Banks, investors have invested billions of dollars based on the rules of the road, and you have employees who have set careers based on these things,' Curtis said. 'Let's not destroy careers and things like that,' he added. 'Let's give people a chance to adjust. So in the case of those that it's time to phase them out, I think how we phase them out matters.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Politico
2 days ago
- Business
- Politico
EPA to propose rolling back climate rule for power plants Wednesday
The Trump administration will move Wednesday to repeal federal limits on power plant climate pollution, attacking the Biden era's most ambitious attempt to use regulations to rein in heat-trapping gases from the electric grid, according to six people familiar with the situation. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin will announce the repeal of the power plant carbon dioxide rule along with a separate regulation to curb hazardous air pollution such as mercury during an event at agency headquarters, the people said. The two repeal proposals are the most important EPA regulatory actions of President Donald Trump's second term to date. Without offering details, EPA said Tuesday that Zeldin will make a 'major policy announcement' at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Scrapping the Biden-era power plant rule would effectively shelve regulations for the nation's second-biggest producer of climate pollution — the electricity sector — which accounts for one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse gases. The move will come one day after the executive director of Trump's National Energy Dominance Council, Jarrod Agen, defended the administration's focus on coal and natural gas for maintaining the reliability of the electric grid. Speaking at POLITICO's annual Energy Summit on Tuesday, Agen said Trump is not considering renewable sources such as solar power for the nation's energy mix, despite those technologies' support from some GOP lawmakers as well as business leaders such as Elon Musk. 'The president's priorities are around turning around fossil fuels,' Agen said. One of the people familiar with EPA's plans said the agency does not anticipate writing a replacement rule because it is 'hopeful' the agency will prevail in a separate effort to unwind its 2009 declaration that greenhouse gases harm the public. That declaration, known as the endangerment finding, forms the legal basis for regulating those emissions. The two Clean Air Act rules that Zeldin will ditch were central to the Biden administration's power sector strategy. The climate rule aimed to curb greenhouse gases by requiring new gas-fired power plants and existing coal-fired units to capture and store their greenhouse gas emissions by the 2030s. EPA has said it plans to finalize repeal of the rules by the end of this year.
Politico
2 days ago
- Business
- Politico
Trump energy adviser slams renewables, says focus is on fossil fuels
President Donald Trump is a fan of fossil fuels who is determined to boost oil and gas and turn away from renewables — regardless of what some energy executives, fellow Republicans or even Elon Musk have to say on the matter, one of his top energy advisers said Tuesday. 'What I would say is the president is in charge,' said Jarrod Agen, a deputy assistant to the president and executive director of the White House's National Energy Dominance Council, at POLITICO's annual Energy Summit. 'The last thing we want is in the short term to have any problems with the grid,' he added. Trump believes that fossil fuels got a 'bad deal' under former President Joe Biden, and the current administration will continue to double down on traditional energy, Agen said. That is despite economic uncertainty brought on during Trump's term that has roiled energy markets. The shaky outlook for oil was punctuated Tuesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which predicted that domestic crude production will fall next year after U.S. oil reached record output under Biden. Trump created the National Energy Dominance Council early in his second term, with goals of boosting energy production and reliability. Trump also campaigned on slashing energy costs, and he has taken credit for lower gasoline prices tied in part to an oil price slump associated with global economic worries. Supporters have credited the energy council for a wide array of moves in the last five months, from aggressively accelerating environmental permits to opening up more land for drilling. But the council's exact role in such actions remains unclear. The council is something of a black box, with no public meetings. The group's first director left weeks after joining the administration. And critics have questioned its usefulness. Agen said the council operates with a startup culture and has a 'tiger team' of about 10 staffers. Working out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, he said, they coordinate energy policy across the federal bureaucracy and home in on specific projects, meeting with companies to understand what hurdles they face. 'We can serve as a voice in the White House that can call over to these different departments and say, 'Hey, this is a priority, this is something the White House wants to get done, something the president wants to get done. What's the hold up over there?'' Agen said. Agen added that the council has experts in sectors ranging from oil and gas to pipelines, mining, critical minerals, electric grids and coal — but not solar. 'The president's priorities are around turning around fossil fuels,' Agen said, specifying that the administration wants to see new natural gas pipelines in Alaska and in the Northeast, as well as natural gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump renamed the Gulf of America via executive order earlier this year. Agen's comments Tuesday were a rare public look at the council's staff and inner workings, which have largely been out of public view. And they clashed with some industry voices and technology executives, including Musk — the Tesla CEO and a former Trump adviser — who have argued that that the U.S. should strive to be a leader in clean energy innovation. Agen joined Interior this year as a senior aide to Secretary Doug Burgum, who chairs the National Energy Dominance Council. Agen previously worked for former Vice President Mike Pence. He left a job at Lockheed Martin earlier this year, according to his LinkedIn profile. Energy 'dominance' has been a main theme of Trump's second term, and he has wielded an emphasis on oil and gas to jettison clean energy programs and abandon climate goals. The administration has ordered certain coal plants to remain open, pushed for drilling in untouched lands in northern Alaska and has cut permitting timelines for traditional energy projects from years down to days. Earlier this month, Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin visited Alaska — along with Agen — to throw their support behind a planned natural gas pipeline that would cross the entire state. One goal of that project is potential gas exports to Asia. Agen said his experience visiting the North Slope made him want more drilling in Alaska. 'These are massive, barren lands of snow and ice,' he said. 'Where would we want to have the oil and gas come from? It's there.' Agen repeatedly dinged renewable energy Tuesday, despite its rapid growth in recent years and the push from numerous American allies to decarbonize in the face of looming scientific evidence of the harms from climate change. Agen said renewables are supported by tax breaks and 'can't stand on their own feet.' 'The president is not focused on wind and solar,' he said. 'They haven't proven that they can get off the ground.' Agen said nuclear power is a long-term priority for the administration, while increasing American energy production will help with trade conflicts. 'The more we can produce energy here and export it, that will be a huge benefit to us in these trade negotiations,' he said.
