President Donald Trump’s declaration of an energy emergency opens the door to wield sweeping Cold War-era powers and little-known authorities to fast-track pipelines, expand power grids and save struggling coal plants.

By invoking the country’s national and economic security, the plan lays the foundation for energy projects to move forward with unprecedented speed — even if it involves encroaching on habitat for endangered species or tapping powers usually reserved for wartime.

The president has directed federal agencies to scour statutes and regulations to find obscure rules allowing him to facilitate production of more oil, natural gas and electricity, as well as approve construction of the pipelines and power lines needed to move it.

The declaration, which Trump signed after taking office Monday, sets the stage for him to push national security boundaries to achieve his energy priorities, potentially going even further than former President Joe Biden did in his own quest to fight climate change. It’s part of an ongoing push by presidents to stretch the limits of executive authority.

“This is power politics in an era of power — not rules,” said Kevin Book, managing director of the Washington consulting firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC.

Critics say the idea of an energy emergency flies in the face of soaring oil and gas production. The U.S. has solidified its position as the world’s top crude producer in recent years, with record output far surpassing any other nation.

One of the biggest changes Trump is setting in motion is speeding up project reviews using emergency consultations under the Endangered Species Act. Usually reserved for natural disasters such as forest fires and hurricanes, the process allows quicker approvals of projects that may harm — but not completely jeopardize — at-risk wildlife.

Trump has also ordered quarterly meetings of a committee of cabinet-level officials that’s authorized to green-light ventures even when the survival of a species is at stake. The panel — known as the “God Squad” — has met only a handful of times over the past four decades.

“They are definitely reaching deep to utilize pretty specific exceptions,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This executive order is a death warrant for polar bears, lesser prairie chickens, whooping cranes and so many more species on the brink of extinction.”

Industry leaders have long complained that conservationists have weaponized the Endangered Species Act to challenge plans to expand oil drilling, build power plants and develop mines. During Trump’s first term, efforts to protect the greater sage-grouse — whose habitat overlaps with prime oil hotspots — stalled plans to expand drilling in the western U.S.

Supporters of Trump’s latest move argue it will shift the balance, hastening approvals while still ensuring species are protected.

“We have a permitting process that is taking too long and has been abused,” said Andrew Black, president of the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association.

White House officials said Trump would take a balanced approach.

“Just as he did in his first term, President Trump will advance conservatism and environmental stewardship while promoting economic growth for Americans across the country by unleashing our energy — which is much cleaner than oil and gas in foreign countries — and lowering prices,” said Harrison Fields, White House principal deputy press secretary.

Most emergency powers in federal law are designed to rapidly halt action — not kick-start it. For years, environmental activists eyed them as a way to confront climate change, lobbying Biden to halt crude exports, stop pipeline flows and take other executive actions to stifle greenhouse gas emissions.

Now, Trump is invoking a crisis to unlock more fossil fuels. The energy sources identified for special treatment are limited to those favored by the president — oil, gas, coal, hydropower, geothermal and nuclear — while wind, solar and battery storage are left out.

Separate emergency powers Trump has triggered allow the administration to overrule individual states’ efforts to block pipelines and other energy infrastructure on environmental grounds. Williams Cos. in 2020 scrapped its planned Constitution Pipeline to transport gas from Appalachia to New York after the state blocked it citing water-quality concerns.

“We desperately need more pipeline infrastructure to the Northeast,” said Dena Wiggins, president of the Natural Gas Supply Association. “There is quite a bit of gas” in the region, “but we can’t get it through the state of New York.”

Trump justified his declaration by calling the U.S. energy system “precariously inadequate and intermittent” and saying it “leaves us vulnerable to hostile foreign actors and poses an imminent and growing threat.”

He argues the growing demand for electricity from artificial intelligence makes the need for swift action all the more urgent.

“Under emergency declaration I can get the approvals done myself without having to go through years of waiting,” Trump told world leaders and chief executives gathered in Davos Thursday.

Trump has tried to use similar tactics before. During his first term, officials considered using Cold War-era powers to direct government purchases of power and generation capacity from struggling coal plants in a bid to prevent them from shutting down.

This time, the president ordered an assessment of the Defense Department’s ability to acquire and move “the energy, electricity or fuels needed to protect the homeland and to conduct operations abroad.” He’s also told agencies to fix any vulnerabilities, even if it means tapping emergency military construction authority normally reserved for wartime.

The effort could extend beyond military bases, potentially reaching to pipelines supplying diesel to ships in New York Harbor or trucks at ammunition depots across the country, according to a person familiar with the effort who asked not to be named because the deliberations were private. Privately owned pipelines and refineries that supply fuel to the military could be targeted for upgrades or new capacity. And since almost every U.S. military base is connected to a civilian power grid, those could be in play too.

Backers of the plan say it will streamline bureaucratic reviews and allow speedy construction of essential infrastructure.

Trump is even borrowing from Biden’s playbook. For each of the past three summers, Biden issued emergency waivers to allow widespread sale of higher-ethanol E15 gasoline.

Now Trump is recommending doing the same.

“The presidents are learning from one another,” Book said, “and taking bolder and bolder steps to the outer edge of what’s in bounds.”

_____

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.