Everyone is focused on the US withdrawal from Paris and the tariff threat, but several other Executive Orders yesterday will have even more radical impacts and will require Canada to rethink all our energy and climate policies in response. /...
Eliminates the EV mandate. Poof. Canada spent $50b + in subsidies to build unwanted products for a market that just vanished. Unbelievable stupidity on the part of Trudeau, Ford and our other moron leaders.
Hits the jets on project approvals: All agency heads "shall undertake all available efforts to eliminate all delays within their respective permitting processes, including through, but not limited to, the use of general permitting and permit by rule. For any project an agency head deems essential for the Nation’s economy or national security, agencies shall use all possible authorities, including emergency authorities, to expedite the adjudication of Federal permits." 180 degree opposite to what's happening in Canada. But the biggest moves are yet to come.
"ensure that the global effects of a rule, regulation, or action shall, whenever evaluated, be reported separately from its domestic costs and benefits, in order to promote sound regulatory decision making and prioritize the interests of the American people;" That wipes out the basis of using global climate change in US rulemaking. They did that previously under Trump 1.0 but Biden had reversed it.
Directs agencies "to safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances, including but not limited to lightbulbs, dishwashers, washing machines, gas stoves, water heaters, toilets, and shower heads, and to promote market competition and innovation within the manufacturing and appliance industries;". At last a government that sees through the bad economics of so-called energy efficiency regulations. Once they start pulling on this thread a lot of rules will fall apart and consumer prices will fall as a result.
"The Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG), which was established pursuant to Executive Order 13990, is hereby disbanded, and any guidance, instruction, recommendation, or document issued by the IWG is withdrawn" The IWG was relied on not just by the Biden Admin but by Canada and other governments to justify GHG regulations.
Gives the EPA 60 days to address the fact that the Social Cost of Carbon is "marked by logical deficiencies, a poor basis in empirical science, politicization, and the absence of a foundation in legislation." The EPA must assess repealing all its uses.
Within 30 days submit recommendations regarding repeal of the 2009 EPA Endangerment Finding, which forms the legal basis for all EPA greenhouse gas regulation authority. If this happens they zero out all climate regs.
Rescinds all Green New Deal-type spending and forbids agencies from using climate change considerations in future decision-making. But there's more yet.
Declares an Energy Emergency and gives all agency heads emergency authorization to override regulatory limits on "identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources, including, but not limited to, on Federal lands."
"agencies shall identify and use all relevant lawful emergency and other authorities available to them to expedite the completion of all authorized and appropriated infrastructure, energy, environmental, and natural resources projects that are within the identified authority of each of the Secretaries to perform or to advance."
Not only withdraws from the 2012 Paris Treaty but "from any agreement, pact, accord, or similar commitment made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change." This means they are now out of all global climate agreements made since 1992.
Also they have pulled out of any and all international funding commitments made at past COPs. Since most of the recent COPs have been focused on financing handouts to 3rd World countries this means all of them are now null and void.
All agency heads directed to "prioritize the development of Alaska’s liquified natural gas (LNG) potential, including the sale and transportation of Alaskan LNG to other regions of the United States and allied nations within the Pacific region." Yet again Canada's failure to develop LNG export capability leaves us behind.
Taken together these Executive Orders are remarkably detailed and fine-tuned to wipe out all forms of climate regulation and other barriers to US hydrocarbon energy development (including coal). They not only prescribe agency actions but simultaneously undercut the basis of future legal challenges.
The US is positioning itself for a domestic energy boom. This could be a benefit for Canada if we deal with the fentanyl problem, border security and defence spending, thereby heading off the tariff threat. And then emulate the US actions and unleash our own energy sector.
Our current federal and provincial governments may want to pretend this isn't happening but it just did. We already have trouble attracting foreign investment and the competitiveness gap just opened very very wide. I have no confidence any of the Liberal leadership contenders (especially Carney) are capable of dealing with the situation we now face. .../
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