TotalEnergies executive: Trump unlikely to undo Biden’s IRA climate law

TotalEnergies, a French oil company, does not believe Donald Trump will pull the U.S. from the Paris Agreement to combat climate change and undo the Inflation Reduction Act legislation if he becomes president of the United States again. This was stated by the strategy director on Monday.

Aurelien Hamelle said this while presenting Total’s energy outlook, which forecasts global demand scenarios up to 2050.

The current trends scenario of the company does not also project a lifting by the U.S. government of its current ban on new LNG export facilities.

Why it's important

Before Tuesday's elections, former President Trump campaigned with a platform that included a rollback on climate regulations that were passed by President Joe Biden to reduce the release of greenhouse gasses from the oil and natural gas industry.

This includes withdrawing from the Paris Agreement where countries commit to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius in 2050 and possibly undoing Biden’s flagship IRA which provides massive incentives and subsidies to clean energy technologies.

CONTEXT

TotalEnergies has a large contract to buy U.S. natural gases for export. It also owns several U.S. upstream shale fields and has a pipeline of projects.

The company is also considering a number of production sites to produce renewable fuels. It has a portfolio of 25 gigawatts in the U.S.

KEY QUOTES

"We take into account existing legislation in our current trends scenario, and for the IRA to be called into question you would need a Republican-controlled Congress, which the polls say is unlikely," Hamelle said.

"What we see also with the IRA is that Republican districts and states have benefited as well from the creation of jobs.

"What's clear is that America will lead the global energy transformation... We did not forecast a scenario 'worse' than current trends." Reporting by America Hernandez, Editing by Kevin Liffey

(source: Reuters)