Trump Presidency Likely to Act Fast on Energy: ex-Senator

Donald Trump is likely to make his presidential mark on the US legislative front very quickly where energy is concerned, a former Republican senator John Sununu told a webinar hosted by law firm Akin Gump late January 12. 

The president-elect's swearing-in ceremony is planned for January 20, with the main offices of state expected to be filled by his nominees a week or two later, said Sununu, now a senior policy adviser of the US firm.

The US departments of energy and of the interior had "strong, experienced" policy-makers at the helm so there would be no learning curve there. But when asked if some of the nominations might not survive the voting process, he said he had a few doubts, including the candidacy of Rex Tillerson, the prospective secretary of state. He "won't get many democrat votes," he said. It would take just a few Republican defections, such as Senator Marco Rubio, who grilled Tillerson January 11 on his views on Russian warfare in Syria, to swing the vote against him. 

Sununu said that energy, tax and job creation in the form of infrastructure projects were areas Trump would tackle fast, with a range of tools at his disposal including executive orders and the Congressional Review Act to scrap legislation passed in the last six months. There will be a lot of activity beginning almost immediately after Trump's inauguration, he said.

Sununu said that if the election has told us anything, it is that Trump will govern in much the same way as he campaigned: bold, impulsive, a little bit brash. He will be aggressive in pursuit of policies and worry less about popularity than getting the job done, he said.

The legal changes likely to be pursued sooner rather than later would, if successful, broaden the areas available to drill for oil and gas, allow more flaring of methane on federal lands; change the regulations on waste water from hydraulic fracturing and introduce incentives to develop infrastructure.

John Sununu

(Credit: Akin Gump)

Some of these would be done by executive order almost immediately he has been sworn in on January 20; others would take a little longer, depending on the method adopted, such as allowing the existing committees, such as the senate's energy and natural resources committee under Senator Lisa Murkowski (Alaska, Republican), to work more quickly.

He also said there would be a serious effort to repeal the Clean Power Plan through new law making. Democrat senators in coal-producing states are up for re-election, he said, and he doubts if they would want to go on the record as voting for measures that would cut jobs in that sector.

William Powell