President Donald Trump declared a national energy emergency, signing an executive order promoting oil and natural gas development and slamming West Coast states for energy laws purportedly jeopardizing national interests.

Trump capped off Inauguration Day Jan. 20 by declaring the emergency and signing several other executive orders related to energy, including one titled, “Unleashing American Energy.”

Federal agencies were directed to remove barriers to the production of coal, oil, natural gas, biofuels, hydropower, minerals and nuclear energy.

Trump told a crowd gathered for an indoor inauguration parade at a Washington, D.C., sports arena that his administration had a mandate to reverse the Biden administration’s energy and climate policies.

“We won the whole ball of wax and now we’re going drill, baby, drill,” he said.

“We have more oil and gas than any country in the world, and we’re going to use it,” he said. “We’re not going to do the wind thing,” said Trump, circling his finger in the air. “Big, ugly windmills. They ruin your neighborhood.”

Trump’s orders clash with Washington, Oregon and California’s plans to phase out fossil fuels to run vehicles and make electricity. Trump’s declaration claimed “dangerous state and local policies” most pronounced on the West Coast and in the Northeast threaten prosperity and national defense.

As Trump reorients national energy policy, Washington state’s official energy strategy will become more unrealistic, Benton County Public Utility District General Manager Rick Dunn said.

The strategy, written by the state Department of Commerce, relies on Montana and Wyoming generating massive amounts of wind power and transmitting it to Washington.

“Trump chilling investment in wind and solar will have a major, major impact on Washington’s energy strategy,” Dunn said. “Washington needs other states. You can’t operate in a vacuum.”

Trump is not exaggerating the energy problems faced by the U.S., Dunn said.

“The Trump administration is doing the right thing,” he said. “Washington is just going to be left further behind. … We’re backed into a corner and walking toward a cliff.”

Environmental and renewable energy groups criticized Trump’s orders. The orders will “fuel climate catastrophes,” according to the Environmental Integrity Project. Wind power is essential for manufacturers and data centers vital to national security, the American Clean Power Association said in a statement.

Far-ranging orders

The executive orders were far-ranging. Trump committed to drilling for oil and gas in Alaska, eliminating electric-vehicle mandates, halting off-shore wind projects and withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.

He told agencies to “terminate the Green New Deal” and stop distributing funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including money for electric vehicle charging stations.

Agencies were told to safeguard consumer choice in lightbulbs, dishwashers, washing machines, gas stoves, water heaters, toilets and shower heads.

Trump disbanded a panel that calculates the “social cost of carbon” and revoked a Biden administration order putting climate change at the “forefront” of Interior Department policies.

In his remarks at the sports arena, Trump mocked wind power as unreliable, imagining the disappointment of a a couple planning to watch their “favorite president on television.”

“Gladys, I’m sorry the wind just isn’t blowing. We’re not watching Trump tonight,” the president joked.