President Donald Trump told Republicans gathered at his Miami-area resort Monday night that he’s going to fast-track environmental approvals for new power plants, impose tariffs on some minerals and free up land to mine for rare earths.
“I’m going to give fast environmental approval for anybody building a plant for electric generation, and anybody that invests more than $1 billion will get super-rapid approval,” Trump said at the annual policy retreat. “I approved LNG plants in Louisiana, they were waiting for so many years.”
The comments — part of a far-reaching speech that was sparse on details — were included as Trump talked about his administration’s first steps since he took office last week. He touted his moves to halt funding across the government, take more than 350 executive actions, withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization, and declare a national “energy emergency.”
Trump’s policy blitz has put energy in the spotlight. His recent slew of executive orders and declaration of an energy emergency has largely focused on national defense and feeding a booming technology industry, including energy-hungry artificial intelligence centers.
