As much of the U.S. starts off 2025 with icy weather that has nearly 35 million Americans under winter storm warnings from the Midwest to the East Coast, it seems Mother Nature has decided to show us how important energy issues will be in the coming year. As we have been saying, a change in administration will hopefully bring an end to the green-at-any-cost policies we’ve seen from the Biden presidency. These are some key issues we are watching:

• In a desperate attempt to secure his “climate legacy” on his way out, Biden is poised to block all future oil and gas drilling in federal waters. This would remove nearly 625 million acres from energy exploration. It will be a test of congressional leaders to halt this and any other shortsighted, politicized actions Biden takes in the upcoming lame duck days.
• Republicans are poised to control both houses of Congress and the White House following the inauguration. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has already pledged an effort to roll back many of the damaging “green” policies of the last four years, specifically job-killing electric vehicle mandates.
• Dumping the damaging policies of the previous administration is a great start, but incoming President Trump and congressional leaders must also develop a common sense energy agenda that embraces affordable, reliable and clean energy security. Trump has nominated an impressive slate of advisors to implement smart energy policies, and they will hopefully be quickly confirmed so they can get to work. TEA’s new “Build, baby, build” initiative—with investments in pipelines, transmission lines, LNG terminals and new natural gas power plants—should be part of their plan.

• While the national political drama will likely get much short-term attention, many important energy issues are decided much closer to home by state and local leaders. In one glaring example, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has proposed leasing state forests to be cut down for a solar panel installation. Clearing forests and damaging wildlife habitats to install solar panels in Northern Michigan is exactly the kind of green hypocrisy that TEA has been fighting against. Thankfully, there has already been a bipartisan push back against the plan. In 2025, we need to support these common-sense local leaders that are protecting our environment and energy future in our own backyards.

The coming year brings a lot of hope and potential for our affordable, reliable and clean energy security future. But, we can only secure that future if that hope is turned into action. TEA and its followers will be watching and encouraging our leaders to do just that.