Moving at ‘Trump Speed’ to Cut Red Tape, Make U.S. Energy More Accessible

For years, the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline was dead — leaving an energy-starved region of America to suffer solely to satisfy the left’s extreme climate ideology.

Rather than take advantage of America’s abundant supply of natural gas, blue states in the Northeast like New York were willing to forgo clean, affordable natural gas and the new construction jobs that come with it, all to block a pipeline and appease green activists. Ordinary families paid for that choice with some of the highest energy bills in the nation. By January 2026, the average New York household was paying 28.37 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity — roughly 62 percent above the national average.

When President Donald Trump returned to office, he insisted on breaking through the climate cartel, knowing the NESE pipeline would help lower energy costs in one of the country’s most expensive regions.

He wouldn’t take no for an answer, and soon permits were secured, jobs were mapped out and ground was broken. And now in spite of New York politicians’ long held resistance and stubborn blockade, 2.3 million downstate New Yorkers will have access to affordable natural gas by the end of next year.

This is Trump Speed in action. The project lived or died on approvals from blue states, so the President engaged the governors directly and brought an end to the resistance that was killing NESE and other critical energy projects.

There’s still more work to be done. New Yorkers still have to get their natural gas from Pennsylvania despite the state sitting on abundant natural gas. Democrats in Albany banned the safe extraction of natural gas statewide, and there’s other pipeline projects that they continue to hold up.

For example, Constitution Pipeline would deliver natural gas through New York to New England. There are millions of New Englanders who would benefit from Pennsylvania natural gas. That project would be a gamechanger for ratepayers across the Northeast.

New York politicians also shut down the Indian Point nuclear plant in 2020 and 2021, roughly 2,000 megawatts of firm, around-the-clock power just north of New York City, and replaced it largely with natural gas, leaving the downstate region more dependent than ever on the very fuel its leaders refuse to let flow freely.

The bill is coming due: in October 2025, the New York Independent System Operator — the state’s own grid operator — warned of looming reliability shortfalls in New York City beginning in the summer of 2026.

The Trump Speed mindset is also benefitting farmers in the Midwest, who for years chafed with Obama-Biden-era regulations that idled their tractors and farm equipment because of a faulty Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) system. In my first nine and a half months as EPA Administrator, I visited all 50 states, and everywhere I went I heard from farmers and truckers. One conversation in the heart of ag country stays with me: a farmer told me his tractor had stopped working four separate times during a single harvest because of a faulty DEF system. When that system detects a fault, the engine “derates,” it cuts power, sometimes nearly to zero, and the work stops cold.

We immediately went to work to urgently address these concerns. In August of last year, at the Iowa State Fair, alongside Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, we announced new, clear EPA guidance urging engine and equipment manufacturers to revise DEF system software in existing vehicles and equipment to prevent these sudden shutdowns, giving operators more time to repair faults without impacting productivity or safety.

On agricultural equipment, due to our announcement, the window before a fault forces the tractor to idle went from as little as four hours to as much as 100 — the difference between losing an afternoon and bringing in the harvest. That story of a tractor shutting down during harvest because of a faulty DEF system has long been a devastating reality for too many farmers across America but is now becoming a problem of the past thanks to the Trump Administration’s decisive actions, and we’re just getting started.

This past February, EPA also removed a major obstacle by affirming that under the Clean Air Act, Americans have the right to repair their own equipment, in the field, or wherever they choose, instead of being forced back to an authorized dealer. That saves farmers time and money.

That same month, EPA sent information-demand letters to 14 on-road and nonroad manufacturers responsible for more than 80 percent of the products used in DEF systems, seeking their warranty data on why those systems fail. All 14 responded, and the answer pointed to the sensors themselves. So, on March 27 — with hundreds of farmers gathered on the South Lawn alongside the President — EPA issued guidance letting manufacturers drop the troublesome urea-quality sensor in favor of the more reliable NOx sensor, so a faulty sensor no longer stops a working machine. By the Small Business Administration’s estimate, that single change will save Americans $13.79 billion.

And we are not finished. Earlier this month, EPA sent a deregulatory proposal to the Office of Management and Budget that would entirely eliminate disruptive DEF-related derates on new engines and vehicles.

When Americans tell President Trump about a problem, it’s immediately on his radar, and, therefore, it’s on the entire administration’s radar.

This Administration listens to everyday Americans. We put their concerns first, identify solutions, and get them implemented as quickly and efficiently as possible. The results are already reaching kitchen tables and tractor cabs across the country through lower bills, fewer breakdowns, and more good-paying jobs. More pipelines are on the way. More relief is on the way. We are entering a golden age of American energy, one where America’s farmers and families finally have a government that works as hard as they do.