US President Donald Trump is ordering the Justice Department to take legal action against states that impose fines on fossil fuel companies for their greenhouse gas emissions. Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing US Attorney Pam Bondi to identify state laws or regulations that could impede the use of domestic oil and gas. The president told the Justice Department to prioritize targeting state efforts to address climate change and environmental justice. Oil executives had identified efforts by New York and other states to penalize the industry for its greenhouse gas emissions and contributions to climate change as a top concern during a meeting with the president at the White House last month, according to people familiar with the matter. It’s an example of how the industry is getting much of what it wants from the administration, even as Trump’s global tariffs have triggered a sharp drop in crude prices over the past week. The White House didn’t immediately comment.  Oil and gas companies regularly face fines and in some cases lawsuits from states pushing to cut emissions and hold the industry responsible for its contributions to climate change. Trump’s executive order singled out New York’s climate superfund law and California‘s cap-and-trade system for scrutiny. “Directing the Department of Justice to address this state overreach will help restore the rule of law and ensure activist-driven campaigns do not stand in the way of ensuring the nation has access to an affordable and reliable energy supply,” Ryan Meyers, senior vice president and general counsel for the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement.  WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed. MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR Bloomberg

Oil extended a volatile run as investors assessed abrupt shifts in US trade policy, with futures returning to losses following a relief rally on Wednesday. West Texas Intermediate plunged by 3.7% to settle near $60 a barrel, after flirting with a four-year low throughout the session, while Brent fell to close near $63. In the previous session, prices posted the biggest intraday gain since October. With markets in turmoil, President Donald Trump announced a 90-day halt on higher tariffs against dozens of nations, but he also raised duties on China to 145%. Equities fell on Thursday as fresh data showing that US inflation cooled broadly in March failed to allay traders’ fears of a tariff-induced economic slowdown, further pressuring crude. “President Trump is trying to lower inflation, and lowering energy prices is the crux of that strategy,” said Simon Wong, an analyst at Gabelli Funds. Subdued inflation would empower the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, which would allow Trump to refinance trillions in debt at reduced rates, he added. Oil prices are dramatically lower compared with the start of the month as the aggressive US tariff push sparked warnings of a global recession that would depress energy demand. At the same time, the OPEC+ alliance committed to loosening output curbs at a faster pace that expected, spurring concerns about a bigger global glut. Kazakhstan, which has repeatedly exceeded its production limits, is again holding negotiations with oil companies on cutting output to comply with its quota, according to Interfax. China is the largest oil importer, and the higher US levies may weigh on the nation’s consumption of fuels and petrochemicals. Even before Trump’s return to the White House, usage of gasoline and diesel had been contracting, in part because of a drawn-out property crisis, and in part because of

The PJM Interconnection will work with Google to use artificial intelligence to potentially revamp and speed up its grid interconnection process, the grid operator said Thursday. Tapestry, part of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, will work with PJM in a multi-year effort to integrate dozens of databases and tools the grid operator uses to study interconnection requests into a unified model of PJM’s network, according to Page Crahan, Tapestry general manager. The unified model will allow project developers, grid planners and operators to access everything they need to make critical decisions in one place, Crahan said during a media briefing. Tapestry expects the project will roll out in phases, starting this year, according to Crahan. First, Tapestry and PJM aim to improve the generator interconnection application process, she said. It’s too soon to know when and to what extent PJM’s two-year interconnection process will be accelerated by the initiative, said Aftab Khan, PJM’s executive vice president for operations, planning and security. “There is significant potential for us, but it’s very difficult at this time … to quantify and say, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to achieve,’” he said. As a “guide post,” Tapestry worked with Chile’s grid operator to reduce the time it took to finish certain planning processes from several days to a few hours, according to Crahan. “So, we’re looking for a significant order of magnitude improvement to support the PJM planners,” Crahan said. PJM is in the middle of its transition to a new, cluster-based interconnection process, according to Khan. As part of the transition, PJM last year finished a 26-GW fast-track interconnection review, he said, noting that the grid operator has signed generator interconnection agreements totaling about 50 GW that isn’t yet operating. PJM expects to complete its 46-GW transition Cycle 1 late this year and

President Donald Trump on Wednesday directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies to add provisions to their energy-related regulations so they would expire within five years. “By rescinding outdated regulations that serve as a drag on progress, we can stimulate innovation and deliver prosperity to everyday Americans,” Trump said in an executive order. Trump ordered the sunset provisions to be in place by Sept. 30. For FERC, the directive covers all regulations under the Federal Power Act, the Natural Gas Act and the Power Plant and Industrial Fuel Use Act. The U.S. Department of Energy must add sunset provisions to its regulations under the Atomic Energy Act; the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act; the Energy Policy Act of 1992; the Energy Policy Act of 2005; and the Energy Independence and Security Act, according to the executive order. Other departments and agencies affected by Trump’s order are: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement; the Bureau of Land Management; the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Trump directed agency heads to coordinate with their so-called Department of Government Efficiency team leads and the Office of Management and Budget to implement the sunset order. The sunset date for a covered regulation may be repeatedly extended if the agency finds an extension is warranted, according to the executive order. Trump’s order does not apply to regulatory permitting regimes authorized by statute. The executive order is “impossible to implement, blatantly illegal, creates massive amounts of unnecessary work, and just makes no sense,” Ari Peskoe, director of Harvard Law School’s Electricity Law Initiative, said in an email Thursday. “It is deeply misguided and reveals a

Dive Brief: President Trump’s early moves to limit offshore wind permitting, along with his economic policies such as increased tariffs, will make it difficult for U.S. offshore wind developers to complete early-stage projects or launch new ones for the next four years, said Morningstar DBRS Vice President of Project Finance and Infrastructure Kevin Beicke.  “As costs increase for these offshore wind projects, due to inflation or tariffs or other factors, the economics of these projects become less attractive, and so I think it becomes a little bit more difficult to sell it to the public, even for states that have explicit goals to obtain energy from offshore wind,” Beicke said. Rasmus Errboe, CEO of Danish renewable energy developer Ørsted – which abandoned two U.S. offshore wind projects last year – said Wednesday in the Financial Times that Trump’s tariffs would have a “meaningful impact” on the cost of projects in the U.S.  Dive Insight: The offshore wind industry faced economic turbulence over the last few years due to inflation and increased interest rates, but was bolstered by federal and state goals for offshore wind procurement as well as Inflation Reduction Act tax credits. However, when Trump took office, one of his first executive orders temporarily withdrew all federal waters from consideration for offshore wind leasing, and paused permitting, approvals and loans for all onshore and offshore wind projects. During the six-month pause, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum will lead an assessment of federal wind leasing and permitting practices, the order said. With a few exceptions such as the Gulf of Maine, the vast majority of areas eligible for offshore wind development are in federal waters, which “limits the growth in the industry to what’s already procured in terms of offshore leases,” Beicke said – even if a state has its

Spirit Energy has been forced to curtail natural gas production at a platform in Morecambe Bay in order to conduct a fire safety inspection, a spokesperson has confirmed. The company’s majority owner Centrica is seeking to redevelop the Morecambe Bay facility into a carbon capture and storage hub that would cater to industrial businesses seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. A spokesperson confirmed that the fire protection sprinkler network known as a deluge system on the CPC-1 platform is in the process of being tested, and that production has been “paused” to enable any necessary remedial measures. The Morecambe central processing complex in the Irish Sea will be shuttered for four weeks while the company conducts fire safety inspections at the behest of the health and safety regulator. Morecambe Bay hub comprises three gas fields in North Morecambe, South Morecambe and Rhyl that have produced natural gas for more than 30 years. The closure follows talks between the health and safety executive (HSE) and Spirit Energy in advance of a routine inspection conducted on 26 March. The platform shutdown was initiated on 12 March. The operator subsequently agreed to a more wide-ranging inspection of deluge systems on the platform in the East Irish Sea, which is usually occupied by about 130 workers. HSE has urged North Sea operators to improve their culture of safety and issued new guidelines on deluge systems maintenance, which are designed to extinguish fires on offshore platforms. In December, it served Repsol with a prohibition notice after an oil platform, the Fulmar platform in the central North Sea, failed a safety inspection due to concerns about its deluge system. Production of natural gas at the Morecambe Bay hub has been curtailed by about 7,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from usual production of about 18,000