U.S. Energy Department Measure Opposes Net-Zero

Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--U.S. households face the prospects of higher energy bills and uncertainty on the grid due to net-zero policies, the U.S. Department of Energy said in a new order.

U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to unravel his predecessor's clean-energy agenda by pulling out of the Paris climate deal, pressing for more upstream activity and issuing an executive order suspending offshore wind energy leases.

On Wednesday, his energy secretary, Chris Wright, issued his own secretarial order that puts upstream production over advancing an economy with net-zero emissions.

"Net-zero policies raise energy costs for American families and businesses, threaten the reliability of our energy system, and undermine our energy and national security," the order states.

Wright is the former chief executive officer of Denver-based Liberty Energy Incorporated (NYSE:LBRT).

Many clean-energy technologies are still in their nascent stage, and thus can be more expensive than conventional fossil fuels. Some of the cleaner options are market dependent, however. When natural gas prices are low, for example, it can incentivize a shift away from coal, which is far more polluting. Other new entries into the clean-energy market, such as hydrogen, may still be uneconomical.

Former President Joe Biden during the waning days of his administration introduced the Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan, which included tackling methane emissions from landfills. It said that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) viewed this as an initiative to cut the amount of food and other organic waste that winds up in landfills. It would also abate emissions of methane, which is a greenhouse gas with a far greater warming potential than carbon dioxide.

Short on the specifics of how to get things done, the order from Wright doubles down on Trump's plans for U.S. energy dominance by advocating for more nuclear energy, strengthening the grid and refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

Wright's order added that clean energy projects have done "precious little" to cut down on global greenhouse gas emissions.

"The fact is that energy matters, and we need more of it, not less," the order states. "Going forward, the department's goal will be to unleash the great abundance of American energy required to power modern life and to achieve a durable state of American energy dominance."

On conventional energy, most major energy companies are beholden to their shareholders and not the president. But in a recent interview with the Reuters news service, Patrick Pouyanne, the chief executive officer of TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) (Courbevoie, France), said he sees Trump's agenda as rational ways to stimulate energy production.

"What they want is very simple: jobs and billions of dollars in the U.S," he said of the Trump administration.

The United States is already the world leader in crude oil and natural gas production, and in recent years passed the likes of Australia and Qatar to lead the pack in terms of exports of liquefied natural gas.

In January, meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical arm of the Department of Energy, found natural gas is the most dominant form of energy on the grid with a 40% share, followed by renewables that account for about 25% of the nation's electric power.

EIA added in its January report that it expected energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) to increase this year, relative to 2024 levels, because of increased consumption of petroleum products.

"Growth in petroleum emissions occurs across multiple sectors, with most growth associated with more consumption of distillate fuel oil and jet fuel," EIA's report read. "CO2 emissions from natural gas and coal remain relatively unchanged overall."

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