By Hannah Grover
President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency and withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord on his first day of presidency, signaling a change in energy policies that favor fossil fuels.
This is a stark difference from his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, who signed into law landmark climate legislation in the form of the Inflation Reduction Act.
In his energy emergency declaration, Trump wrote that there are inadequate energy supplies because of Biden’s “shortsighted policies.”
But while Biden tried to cement a legacy as a climate champion, oil production soared under his watch. Oil production during Biden’s administration was higher than during Trump’s first administration. This particularly benefited New Mexico, which relies heavily on oil and gas to fund services, including public education.
Biden’s administration also sought to clean up the legacy pollution left behind by past oil and gas operations, including orphaned wells in New Mexico.
New Mexico has been getting funding to clean up the orphaned wells in waves. As Biden left office, the state received another $5.5 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — better known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — to clean up orphaned wells. This is enough money to plug 10 wells and to perform site characterization work and remediation at another 50 sites.
However, Trump signed an executive order last week that froze funding for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. A memo issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget states agencies may disburse funding that came as a result of those laws if they first consult with the Office of Management and Budget. It is unclear what Trump’s executive order will mean for future orphaned well cleanup funding.
“This pause only applies to funds supporting programs, projects, or activities that may be implicated by the policy established in Section 2 of the [executive] order,” the memo states.
While Section 2 doesn’t directly mention orphaned well funding, it includes broad language about energy policy.
The Biden administration also took steps to prevent more orphaned wells, or at least put the government in a better position to pay for remediation of future orphaned wells. Raising the bonding rates was one of these steps. The minimum lease bond under Biden increased from $10,000 to $150,000.
While oil production increased under Biden, his administration also took steps to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with each well. Those include methane regulations that were in part based on actions taken in New Mexico.
When it comes to non-fossil fuel energy resources and critical minerals, the Inflation Reduction Act spurred renewable energy development, and Biden’s Investing In America agenda included work to build a critical minerals supply chain.
Trump’s emergency order leaves out wind and solar energy from its definition of energy resources.
The order defines energy and energy resources as crude oil, natural gas, lease condensates, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal heat, the kinetic movement of flowing water and critical minerals.
Biden’s administration set in motion policies to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050.
At the same time, he placed a ban on importing uranium from Russia.
This is one of the reasons why companies are looking at tapping into the vast uranium resources in the Four Corners region, including New Mexico’s Grants Mineral Belt.
Hypocrisy is the watchword of the Biden administration. All the media were yapping how awful and unlawful it would be when Trump would surely pardon his family members. He didn’t do it. But when Biden did, it’s lauded as family values. C’mon man.