Donald Trump will be inaugurated today, Monday (1730 CET). During the election campaign, he already announced that he would use emergency powers as part of his plan to unleash US energy production and at the same time try to reverse President Joe Biden's measures to combat climate change. What exactly is this about?

Hours after being sworn in, Trump wants to make good on his election promises to increase US energy production. He said he was prepared to force policy changes that would allow new oil and gas exploration, while also ordering a rollback of Biden-era climate regulations.

"People with a lot of money should build AI plants"

"We will use our emergency powers to allow countries, entrepreneurs and people with a lot of money to build big plants and AI plants," Trump said. "We need twice the power we already have, and it will end up being more than that."

Declaring a national emergency allows a president to draw on up to 150 special powers normally reserved for hurricanes, terrorist attacks and other unforeseen events.

Emergency powers contained in the Federal Power Act

Trump's measures are intended to affect the entire spectrum of the US energy industry, from oil fields to car dealerships. They also underscore Trump's determination to realign oil and gas production policies, and are thus a sharp departure from Biden's efforts to curb fossil fuels.

However, it is not clear whether Trump could successfully implement the planned measures immediately to achieve the goal of building more power plants. During his first term, he attempted to use special powers to keep unprofitable coal and nuclear plants across the country from shutting down by invoking emergency authority contained in the Federal Power Act, which is normally reserved for natural disasters and other crises. The attempt was eventually abandoned.

Trump has tried it before

Trump is widely expected to use executive power to lift a moratorium on new US licenses to export liquefied natural gas. He is also expected to trigger a rollback of a number of strict government regulations on pollution and vehicle fuel economy.

Other planned actions on day one include reversing Biden's decision to stop making some 625 million acres of US waters available for oil and gas leasing. The legality of Trump's planned withdrawal is also likely to be decided by federal courts. The last time Trump attempted a similar move - to reverse an Obama-era withdrawal from Arctic waters - it was rejected by a federal district court in Alaska.