President-elect Donald Trump is packing his incoming team with big personalities set to drive his aggressive energy agenda.
As Trump vows that energy will take center stage in his administration, he’s picked an energy executive and prominent GOP politicians to carry out his agenda from Cabinet positions. He also announced a new White House energy council, a new environmental task force, and a new operation led by the world’s richest person that’s aimed at cracking down on regulations and shrinking the government.
The new roles and big names are a show of force as Trump promises to “drill, baby, drill” in a push to boost domestic fossil fuel production and undo Biden administration energy and environmental policies. But the new roles — some of which remain nebulous in the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration — could also set the stage for turf wars and personality clashes.
“It’s possible some of these more combustible personalities could explode,” said a former Trump administration official who was granted anonymity to discuss the incoming administration’s personnel moves. “There’s a lot of good people coming in this time around,” that person said, adding that the last thing the new Trump team wants is turf battles on energy.
Trump’s incoming team includes his former foes in the presidential primary, outsiders who have never served in government and wealthy businessmen who aren’t afraid to air their policy grievances publicly.
Trump’s pick for Interior secretary, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), is also set to chair a new White House energy council under Trump. The president-elect announced that Chris Wright, the energy CEO picked to serve as Energy secretary, would serve as a member of that White House energy council.
The council, Trump said, “will oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the Economy, and by focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation.”
Other key players on energy and environmental regulations in Trump world include his pick to lead EPA — former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin (R) — and Ed Russo, a former consultant to Trump whom the president-elect said would lead a new environmental task force.
On top of that, there’s a broader government-downsizing effort led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and wealthy investor Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump tapped to head a so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The exact structure of that effort hasn’t been announced, although the incoming leaders have signaled that they plan to scour the federal government for inefficiencies and push the executive branch to scale back rules they view as overly burdensome.
Trump won’t be the first president to beef up personnel in a bid to better coordinate federal work on energy and environmental issues.
President Joe Biden, for example, launched the White House Climate Policy Office to help focus the government’s climate efforts and set up a National Climate Task Force that convened agency leaders to coordinate their climate work. Then-President Barack Obama hired Carol Browner to serve as a White House energy and environmental adviser.
‘Team sport’
More people working on energy at a high level can be a good thing, according to former White House officials.
“Energy is a team sport in the government,” said James Connaughton, who led the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Trump has not yet named a pick for CEQ chair, a Senate-confirmed post that’s tasked with coordinating the government’s environmental efforts.
The Trump team’s success could hinge on establishing clear lanes of responsibility, Connaughton said.
Government agencies are “ready to act through their chains of command,” Connaughton said. “If you’re creating a new separate chain of command, that’s a problem. I don’t see that occurring yet, but that’s what I’m watching for.”
In the realm of energy, environment and climate, “there is a necessity now that a number of agencies work together very closely,” said David Hayes, who served as a senior climate adviser in the Biden White House.
When Cabinet secretaries face overlap with other agencies’ missions and responsibilities, “there is naturally the opportunity for tension,” Hayes said. “It’s really up to the Cabinet secretaries and the White House to not turn that natural tension into a destructive turf battle.”
The Trump administration is bringing in “folks at very high levels who are going to be in the middle of this thing, who’ve had no experience in the government,” working for a president with a very “top-down” approach, Hayes said.
“In terms of actually working through hard problems and getting the coordination and buy-in from all of the folks that need to be working together and rowing in the same direction, I see a lot of turbulence ahead,” Hayes said.
‘Sounds pretty messy’
Conflicts can occur when lines of responsibility aren’t clear, Connaughton said.
“I do not see ego clashes being a thing at all, as long as there’s clear lines of responsibility,” he said. “If you do not have clear lines of responsibility, and you do not have an effective interagency process for bringing everybody’s views in, that’s when the ego clashes happen.”
Asked about the incoming energy and environment roster, Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that in his first term, Trump “advanced conservation and environmental stewardship while promoting economic growth for families across the country.”
In his second term, Leavitt said in an email, “President Trump will once again deliver clean air and water for American families while Making America Wealthy Again.”
More details about Trump’s energy plans are expected as early as Monday, when he has promised a deluge of executive orders on some of his top priorities soon after his inauguration.
“I think it already sounds pretty messy,” said Gina McCarthy, who served as Biden’s White House climate adviser.
“You worry about people from the outside coming in who have little to no experience in governance or in the actual areas in which they want to contribute,” she said. “It sounds to me like potential for considerable inconsistency in decision-making, instability in the agencies in terms of knowing what they’re supposed to do or not do.
“I think it’s going to be very challenging out of the gate,” she said.
