US Chamber president cheers Trump's executive order on energy independence

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue called President Donald Trump’s executive order on energy independence “good news” for the country.

“American energy resources give us a competitive advantage in the global economy, and the president’s effort to capitalize on those resources is vital to stimulating economic growth," Donohue said. "These executive actions are a welcome departure from the previous administration’s strategy of making energy more expensive through costly, job-killing regulations that choked our economy."

Donohue also said that the Chamber held the long-standing view that the EPA’s power plant regulations were not within the law and were a bad deal for Americans.

“Similarly, the Obama administration’s NEPA guidance threatened to obstruct our ability to build badly needed infrastructure of all kinds, and the moratorium on coal leasing exemplified the reckless hostility toward America’s domestic energy resources,” he said.

He added that he expected there will be more changes in policy under Trump.

“It is clear that the new administration will not be in the business of picking winners and losers in America’s energy portfolio," he said. "We look forward to engaging in the next steps of this process to ensure that economic growth from energy investment and environmental stewardship are no longer viewed as mutually exclusive.”