By Ryan King and Steven Nelson
WASHINGTON — President Trump signed a series of orders on energy policy Monday that he said would tackle inflation after consumer costs soared 22% during former President Biden’s four years in office.
“The biggest thing and factor for inflation is energy. They screwed up my energy policy,” Trump, 78, told reporters during a 47-minute Oval Office news conference hours after being sworn in at the Capitol.
“We’re going to make a lot of money from energy. We have more than anybody else.”
Trump declared a national emergency on energy, aimed at unlocking “different authorities that will enable our nation to quickly build again, to produce more natural resources,” according to an official.
Another one of Trump’s orders lifts Biden’s restrictions on drilling for oil in Alaska, including the now-former president’s 2023 restriction on Arctic Ocean drilling and his ban announced this month on drilling off the US coastline, including in the Bering Sea.
That order will facilitate the “unleashing Alaska’s potential as an energy reservoir for the entire nation,” an aide told Trump as he presented the document for his signature.
