Trump administration hits pause on offshore oil plans after Alaska court ruling
Dino Grandoni, The Washington Post, April 25, 2019
A recent federal court decision appears to have struck a blow to President Donald Trump’s plans to expand offshore oil and natural gas drilling across the U.S. continental shelf, with the aim of turning the United States into an energy-exporting behemoth. In his first interview since being confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told the Wall Street Journal that a recent ruling by a district court in Alaska has stalled plans that at one time called for opening up most U.S. continental-shelf waters to oil and gas companies. Last month, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason ruled that Trump’s revocation of a ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans is illegal. The judge ruled that Congress would need to step in to reverse a decision by President Barack Obama to ban offshore drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.
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Drilling pause could help Trump in 2020
Oil prices plunge 3% after Trump says he told OPEC to tame fuel costs
Tom DiChristopher, CNBC, April 25, 2019
Oil prices tumbled as much as 4% on Friday, extending early losses after U.S. President Donald Trump said he told OPEC to take action to temper fuel costs. “The gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC. I said, ‘You’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down, and gasoline’s coming down,” Trump told reporters en route to a National Rifle Association event in Indianapolis. In fact, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is $2.883 per gallon, up from $2.877 a day ago and $2.839 a week ago, according to AAA. Wholesale U.S. gasoline prices have ticked lower in recent days but are still up about 10% from a week ago and nearly 7% from a month ago.
Lindsey Graham: ‘Climate change is real, the science is sound, and solutions are available’
Dallas Business Journal, April 26, 2019
Former Texas governor and current U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry delivered a keynote address Wednesday evening in which he said executives and politicians should continue to embrace innovation, not regulation, to tackle global warming. At the same event, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) took it a step further, saying there will be drastic economic consequences if politicians can’t come together to combat climate change.
Speaking as part of an EarthX2019 discussion in Dallas on climate change and its economic impact, Perry said there isn’t a profitable path to giving up on fossil fuels entirely. He said that renewable sources of energy offer promise, but lack the consistent supply required to be practical as standalone solutions for driving the economy — for now.
Perry said that the U.S. should continue to invest in renewable energy, but that it must do so without surrendering “growth or opportunity.
