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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 Senateto 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 literatureis heavily salted with proposalsto provide regulatory relief to fossil fuel industries and slanted in favor of new administrative initiativesto 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 wealthto our country. » Declare American energy dominancea 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 willreduce and eliminateall barriers to responsible energy production, creating at least a half millionjobs 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. Environmentallawyers 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’scarbon 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 routeto 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 Democratsup 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 $71 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 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022391