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Energy

Donald Trump is widely expected to significantly depart
from the priorities of the Obama Administration by
favoring development of additional conventional energy
resources and attempting to put the brakes on new
environmental initiatives. The GOP majorities in the
House and Senate have a similar agenda and Democrats
in Congress are expected to mobilize in opposition -- in
particular by leveraging their power in the Senate to
filibuster legislation-and publicly highlight the potential
impacts of a Trump administration's policies.

Trump has pledged to cancel US participation in the 2015
Paris Climate agreement, and opposes implementation of
the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan (CPP). His
campaign literature is heavily salted with proposals to
provide regulatory relief to fossil fuel industries and
slanted in favor of new administrative initiatives to foster
conventional energy development. Specifically, his
website calls for the following energy-related initiatives:

Make America energy independent, create millions of
new jobs, and protect clean air and clean water;
conserve our natural habitats, reserves and resources;
unleash an energy revolution that will bring vast new
wealth to our country.

Declare American energy dominance a strategic
economic and foreign policy goal of the United
States.

Unleash America's $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil,
and natural gas reserves, plus hundreds of years in
clean coal reserves.

Become, and stay, totally independent of any need to
import energy from the OPEC cartel or any nations
hostile to our interests.

Open onshore and offshore leasing on federal lands,
eliminate moratorium on coal leasing, and open shale
energy deposits.

Encourage the use of natural gas and other American
energy resources that will both reduce emissions but
also reduce the price of energy and increase our
economic output.

Rescind all job-destroying Obama executive actions.
Mr. Trump will reduce and eliminate all barriers to
responsible energy production, creating at least a half
million jobs a year, $30 billion in higher wages, and
cheaper energy.

Given the predominance of oil and gas executives
amongst his kitchen cabinet, it is also widely expected
that President-elect Trump will try to halt additional
environmental regulatory measures proposed by the
Obama Administration, such as methane emission
curbs. It should be noted that it is difficult legally to
change or repeal regulations which have been
promulgated in final form - such as the CPP-without
going through the Administrative Procedures Act
process. Environmental lawyers can be expected to
litigate at every step of the way if Trump attempts to
bypass Congress and eliminate the CPP by Executive
Order, and the courts may well serve as a brake on such
actions. However, environmental advocates who would
have likely tried to push a President Clinton to
administratively expand the scope of the CPP's carbon
emission regulations beyond the electric power sector,
potentially economy-wide under Section 115 of the Clean
Air Act, may now be left to using a litigation route to try
to force the Environmental Protection Agency to expand
the CPP to achieve this goal.

During the campaign, Trump also specifically rejected the
idea of using a carbon tax/carbon pricing as a means of
encouraging market-driven emission reductions. With
GOP chairmen of the tax-writing committees in the House
and Senate, it is very unlikely that they will schedule
hearings or markups to move carbon taxes-other than to
schedule votes in the House or Senate aimed at
undermining vulnerable Democrats up for reelection in
2018.

Additionally, the President-elect has vowed to allow
energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline
and other industrial facilities which have faced denials or
delays under the current Administration, to move
forward. Trump has proposed a $1 trillion infrastructure
plan that would rely heavily on private-public partnerships
by providing a tax credit to encourage private investors to
fund projects overseen by states and municipalities. As
conceived by Trump's advisors, the tax credit would apply
to infrastructure projects with a dedicated source of
revenue, such as toll roads, airports or utilities financed
at least in part by fees paid by users. Decisions on which
projects to fund would generally be left to the states.

EY

19 | Election 2016

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