By Timothy Gardner, Valerie Volcovici and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump said on Monday he will declare a national energy emergency aimed at boosting U.S. oil and gas production, and lowering costs for U.S. consumers.
The emergency declaration is just one of many actions Trump was expected to take on Monday to bolster the U.S. oil, gas and power industries and put a brake on former President Joe Biden’s efforts to accelerate the electric vehicle industry.
“America will be a manufacturing nation once 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 are going to use it,” Trump said in his inauguration speech in the U.S. Capitol. “We will drill, baby, drill.”
Biden came into the White House vowing to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels, but U.S. oil and gas production hit record levels under his watch as drillers chased high prices in the wake of sanctions on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
Trump has said the United States is in an artificial-intelligence arms race with China and others, making the industry’s voracious power needs a national priority.
U.S. data center power demand could nearly triple in the next three years, and consume as much as 12% of the country’s electricity on demand from artificial intelligence and other technologies, the Department of Energy projects.
The first Trump administration had considered using emergency powers under the Federal Power Act to attempt to carry out a pledge to rescue the coal industry, but never followed through.
This time, he could use emergency powers to ease environmental restrictions on power plants, speed up construction of new plants, ease permitting for transmission projects, or open up federal land for new data centers.
Trump also said the U.S. will revoke what he called an electric vehicle mandate, saying it would save the U.S. auto industry.
“The common theme is really unleashing affordable and reliable American energy,” a Trump official said earlier in the day. “Because energy permeates every single part of our economy, it’s also key to restoring our national security and exerting American energy dominance around the world.”
Trump has said the United States is in an artificial-intelligence arms race with China and others, making the industry’s voracious power needs a national priority.
FILL SPR ‘RIGHT TO THE TOP’
Trump also said the U.S. will “fill our strategic…
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