Editor's Note: Below is an excerpt from an institutional reasearch note written by Hedgeye Senior Energy Policy analyst Joe McMonigle on Friday, March 24th. Institutional investors interested in access email sales@hedgeye.com.
While the media and pundits focus on health care, President Trump is winning on his accomplishing his energy agenda and he is doing it without any action by Congress.
Less than a week after his inauguration day, Trump signed executive orders directing federal agencies to take action to approve the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access pipelines. A few weeks later, the Army Corps of Engineers issued its approval of an easement for the Dakota Access pipeline prompting federal courts to dismiss litigation by pipeline opponents.
On Friday, Trump received the State Department recommendation to issue the Presidential Permit for the Keystone Pipeline and signed the permit with the CEO of TransCanada in the oval office.
Up next is the roll back of the Obama carbon regulations
We expect the President to sign an executive order on Tuesday that directs EPA to take action to reverse the Obama Clean Power Plan. The move will likely require EPA to start a formal rulemaking process and develop an alternative less-harsh approach.
The executive order signals the end of the Obama-initiated policy to decarbonize the US economy. EPA had only started with the power sector but had plans to move on with carbon regulations for other sectors, including refining, petrochemical, automotive, airlines and others.
Since President Obama established these policies via executive orders and agency rulemaking, the policies are easily reversed by President Trump through the same executive branch action.
So while Obamacare required Congressional action to repeal it, the Obama climate policies are being rolled back by President Trump and he is winning.