Donald Trump vows to unlock $66 trillion shale oil and gas revolution

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SOURCE: THE AUSTRALIAN

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/donald-trump-vows-to-unlock-66-trillion-shale-oil-and-gas-revolution/news-story/bdd8db1ecc8067ae4028b8430dbbae20

by  Graham Lloyd


US President Donald Trump has pledged to unlock a $US50 trillion ($66 trillion) shale oil and gas revolution and boost development of low emissions coal technology for electricity.

The Energy First plan was outlined as the top priority in President Trump’s first action statement after being sworn into office.

The statement committed Trump to scrapping the Obama government’s Climate Action Plan but did not mention renewable energy or whether the US would remain in the Paris agreement.

It was a full endorsement of the future use of fossil fuels. The Trump plan mirrors debate in Australia over energy security.

The federal government wants to overturn state moratoria on gas exploration.

And Malcolm Turnbull has said Australia should be a world leader in the development and deployment of low emissions coal technology and carbon capture and storage.

Trump’s ambitions are to break US reliance on supplies of oil from the Middle East.

Over the weekend Mr Trump said boosting shale oil and gas production would increase wages by more than $30 billion over the next seven years.

Mr Trump’s White House team will begin the rollback of Barack Obama’s climate action plan by striking down a controversial climate metric called the Social Cost of Carbon.

The social cost formula was used to justify the cost of the Obama administration’s environmental regulations. But the formula has been criticised as opaque and open to manipulation.

Mr Trump is also expected to move soon on issuing the executive order to end the carbon metric, while issuing a second order to remove regulatory roadblocks for approving trans-border pipeline projects such as the Keystone XL project to connect Canada’s oil sands to US refiners in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Energy First statement said energy was an essential part of American life and a staple of the world economy.

“The Trump administration is committed to energy policies that lower costs for hardworking Americans and maximise the use of American resources, freeing us from dependence on foreign oil,” the statement said. “President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the US rule,” the statement said.

It said “sound energy policy begins with the recognition that we have vast untapped domestic energy reserves right here in America”.

Mr Trump said he was committed to “achieving energy independence from the OPEC cartel and any nations hostile to our interests.”

“At the same time, we will work with our Gulf allies to develop a positive energy relationship as part of our anti-terrorism strategy,” the energy statement said.

Mr Trump said the energy policy “must go hand-in-hand with responsible stewardship of the environment.”