• Homeowners are increasingly being dropped by their private home insurers.
• Regions with the highest nonrenewal rates are most prone to wildfires, hurricanes, and other disasters.
• A new Senate report warns of economic risks as climate change destabilizes insurance markets.

Homeowners across the country are increasingly facing a stark new reality: they're losing their home insurance.

The share of home insurance policies from large insurers that weren't renewed increased last year in 46 states, a report released Wednesday by the Senate Budget Committee found. The increasing frequency and intensity of disasters like wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding and the rising cost of rebuilding have pushed many insurers to drop customers or hike premiums. This has left thousands of homeowners scrambling to find new insurance policies or joining the growing ranks of those going without insurance.

More than 200 counties saw their non-renewal rates spike threefold between 2018 and 2023. Counties in Northern California and South Florida saw among the highest rates of nonrenewals. Coastal counties in Massachusetts, Mississippi, and North Carolina also saw dropped policies soar. Manhattan ranks 20th, with rates of dropped policies rising from 1.25% in 2018 to 4.11% in 2023.

The national scale of home insurance nonrenewals was previously unknown because insurance companies are regulated at the state level. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners said not all states collect granular data about the availability and affordability of coverage in some areas. The association in March announced an effort with state insurance regulators to try to fill the gap.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse launched his own investigation into the homeowners' insurance market last year. He received nonrenewal data from 23 companies accounting for about two-thirds of the market. In testimony on Wednesday, Whitehouse said he demanded nonrenewal data because experts suggested policies being dropped were an early warning sign of market destabilization. He also said they correlated with higher premiums.

The American Property Casualty Insurance Association, a lobbying group representing insurance companies, said nonrenewal data doesn't provide "relevant information" on climate risks. Many factors, including a state's litigation and regulatory environment, factor into nonrenewal decisions, the association said.

The association added that more costly weather disasters, combined with inflation and overbuilding in climate-risk regions, are making insurance less affordable for many Americans.

Home insurance premiums are rising in many regions across the country. The National Bureau of Economic Research recently reported that average home insurance premiums spiked by 13%, adjusted for inflation, between 2020 and 2023.

Most mortgage lenders require homeowners to purchase insurance, and some require additional insurance for specific disasters, including flooding. Insurers refusing to offer coverage can hurt home values because homes that can't be insured in the private market are less desirable to potential buyers.

The Senate Budget report warned that the insurance crisis will get worse as the climate crisis fuels more frequent and destructive disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding. A destabilized insurance market could "trigger cascading economy-wide financial upheaval," the report said.

"The failure to deal with climate change isn't just driving up the cost of homeowners' insurance, it's making it harder for families to even find homeowners' insurance, and that makes it harder to get a mortgage," Whitehouse said in a statement to Business Insider. "When the pool of buyers is limited to only those who can pay cash, it cuts off pathways to homeownership—particularly for first-time homebuyers—and risks cascading into a crash in property values that trashes the entire economy."

Have you been dropped by your home insurance company or are you facing a steep premium increase? Email these reporters to share your story: [email protected] and [email protected].

• Private home insurers are dropping a growing number of customers in most states, a Senate report found.
• That leaves homeowners at risk, turning to more expensive last-resort options or going uninsured.
• While Florida has managed to reverse the trend somewhat, the risk to homeowners is set to intensify.

As Americans flock to places in the US vulnerable to natural disasters, private home insurance companies are running the other way.

The problem has left a rising number of homeowners with just one option to cover property damage: insurers of last resort.

The scale of homeowners losing their plans became clearer on Wednesday after a Senate Budget Committee investigation found that private insurers' nonrenewals spiked threefold in more than 200 counties between 2018 and 2023.

"What our new data reveal is that the failure to deal with climate change is also affecting whether families can even get homeowners insurance, which threatens their ability to get a mortgage, which spells trouble for property values in climate-exposed communities across the country," Senate Budget Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse said in releasing the report.

A recent study by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies found that between 2018 and 2023, the number of properties enrolled in California and Florida's insurers of last resort more than doubled. A similar trend is playing out in Louisiana. While Florida has reduced participation this year, it still has the highest enrollment in the country.

The problem isn't isolated to the most predictable states. The Senate Budget Committee found that the rate of homeowners losing their private insurance also rose in Hawaii, North Carolina, and Massachusetts.

Policymakers and insurers are trying to stabilize the private market, by enacting new laws and overhauling regulations. However, with scientists predicting that climate-fueled disasters will become more frequent and severe for the foreseeable future, the risk to America's homeowners is mounting.

Growing insurance risk has some states looking for solutions

In nearly three dozen states, insurers of last resort, known as Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, or FAIR, are available to homeowners and businesses who struggle to find insurance on the private market.

The numbers are rising because private insurers are pulling back coverage and hiking premiums in areas at risk of wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, and other disasters often made worse by climate change.

While state-mandated FAIR plans are designed to be a backstop, insurance regulators and private insurance companies are alarmed by how many homeowners and businesses are enrolling, especially in California and Florida. The plans are often more expensive and provide less coverage. Plus, saddling one insurer with the riskiest policies increases the chances of one major disaster sinking the system and leaving taxpayers and insurance companies with the bill.

Florida and California are trying to reverse the trend, and Florida has seen some progress. The state's insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, said on December 4 that its policy count dropped below 1 million for the first time in two years.

Mark Friedlander, a spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute, said the drop reflects a series of changes in recent years to stabilize the state's private insurance market after more than a dozen companies left the state or stopped writing new policies.

The Florida legislature passed laws to curb rampant litigation and claim fraud that drove up legal costs for private insurers. Friedlander said insurance lawsuits in the first three quarters of 2024 are down 56%, compared with the first three quarters of 2021 — the year before the new laws were enacted. Citizens also started a "depopulation" program that shifts customers to the private market. State regulators in October said they had approved at least nine new property companies to enter the market, and premiums weren't rising nearly as much as last year.

In California, many of the deadliest and most destructive wildfires have occurred within the last five years. As a result, some private insurers are hiking premiums and limiting coverage in risky areas, pushing more homeowners to the insurer of last resort. The Harvard study found that policies in the state's FAIR plan doubled between 2018 and 2023 to more than 300,000. As of September, the California Insurance Commission said policies totaled nearly 452,000.

The commission is working to overhaul regulations to slow the trend, including requiring private insurers to sell in risky areas. In exchange, it should be easier for companies to raise premiums that factor in reinsurance costs and the risks of future disasters. That should help stabilize rates, said Michael Sollen, a spokesman for the commission.

Sollen added that in the past, private insurers could seek approval for higher premiums but weren't required to offer coverage in wildfire-prone areas.

"In a year from now, what's happening with the FAIR plan will be a key measure for us," he said. "We expect to see those numbers start to stabilize and go down."

A mounting home insurance crisis

Still, a reduction in state-backed plans isn't necessarily a sign of progress, Steve Koller, a postdoctoral fellow in climate and housing and author of the Harvard report, told Business Insider.

A growing number of homeowners in places like Florida, Louisiana, and California are purchasing private insurance from nontraditional providers barely regulated by state governments. These so-called "non-admitted" insurers don't contribute to a state fund that guarantees homeowners will have their claims paid even if the insurance provider fails, leaving their customers without access to this backup coverage.

"Someone could be moving to a private insurer from Citizens, and that insurer might have higher insolvency risk," Koller said.

He added that more homeowners are opting out of insurance altogether. The number of US homeowners going without insurance has soared from 5% in 2019 to 12% in 2022, the Insurance Information Institute reported.

Plus, Americans are increasingly moving into parts of the country most vulnerable to extreme weather. Tens of thousands more people moved into the most flood—and fire-prone areas of the US last year rather than out of them, the real estate company Redfin reported earlier this year.

As insurers of last resort try to shift more risk to the private market, home insurance premiums are expected to keep rising. That's especially true in the areas hardest hit by climate-fueled disasters.

If private insurers exit hard-hit regions en masse in the future, Koller said states might need to become the predominant insurance provider in the same way the National Flood Insurance Program took over after the private market for flood insurance collapsed in the 1960s. Most flood insurance plans are still issued by the federal government.

"My guess is states are going to work very, very hard to avoid that and ensure the existence of a robust private market, but that's a parallel that I can't personally unthink about," he said.

Have you struggled to get home insurance, moved to an insurer of last resort, or gone uninsured? Contact these reporters at [email protected] or [email protected].

• The Biden administration on Wednesday approved California's ban on gas cars by 2035.
• Trump has promised to revoke California's authority to set strict limits on tailpipe pollution.
• It's a high-stakes fight over the future of electric vehicles and tackling the climate crisis.

The stage is set for another battle between President-elect Donald Trump and California over the state's aggressive push for electric vehicles that could affect the rest of the country.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday said California can go ahead with its ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. The approval is an attempt to safeguard the state's strict limits on tailpipe pollution from Trump's promise to revoke them and roll back other federal incentives for electric vehicles.

The stakes are high for automakers because what happens in California can dictate companies' broader EV strategies and the pace of the country's shift away from fossil fuels. The state accounts for some 11% of the US auto market and is also the top EV market in the country. In the first half of 2024, EVs and hybrids accounted for nearly 40% of sales in California.

On top of that, 11 other states and Washington D.C. have adopted rules similar to California's as they seek to reduce the country's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. The rules require automakers to sell a growing number of zero-emissions vehicles over time. In 2026, at least 35% of new cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs must be electric in California and five other states, while other states' targets kick in in 2027.

Automakers largely support easing emissions regulations

While Trump will face legal challenges in trying to roll back California's rules, he could find some automakers on his side.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a lobbying group representing most new vehicle manufacturers in the US, has already asked Trump to ease emissions regulations but keep federal tax incentives that keep EVs affordable.

John Bozzella, president of the alliance, said Wednesday that the waiver was an expected development and the Trump administration will likely revoke it next year.

"We've said the country should have a single, national standard to reduce carbon in transportation," Bozzella said in a statement. "But the question about the general authority of California to establish a vehicle emissions program – and for other states to follow that program – is ultimately something for policymakers and the courts to sort out."

Trump, some Republican lawmakers, and groups linked to fossil fuel interests have repeatedly attacked EVs on the campaign trail, falsely claiming that Americans would be forced to abandon their gas-powered vehicles.

Those attacks come as the EV market deals with a marked slowdown in demand, forcing many companies to reasses their long-term plans for battery-powered cars and, in some cases, add more hybrids to the mix. A pullback in production has made it harder for many companies to meet long-term emissions requirements. Automakers including General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis have laid off thousands of workers.

Auto market analysts, environmental lawyers, and policy experts told Business Insider that they expect the shift to zero-emissions vehicles to continue regardless of who's in the White House — albeit at a slower pace if Trump and Congress overturn tax incentives to buy EVs and investments in charging infrastructure.

"Whatever the Trump administration does this time, automakers' concerns about stability will come up again because all of these manufacturers have said zero-emissions vehicles are the future," Sean Donahue, an attorney who's represented the Environmental Defense Fund in litigation over California's emissions waiver, said.

He added that there's pressure from regulators in other countries to address the climate crisis. US automakers also don't want to fall far behind competitors in countries like China, where affordable EVs have taken off.

California looks to 'Trump-proof' its regulations

Even if Trump does revoke California's emissions waiver, Gov. Gavin Newsom is already trying to "Trump-proof" the state, including its EV and climate policies.

Newsom said he would restore rebates for consumers who buy EVs if Trump ends the federal $7,500 tax credits enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act. This month, the state's energy commission approved a $1.4 billion investment in EV charging and hydrogen fuel stations over the next four years. The commission said the funding could help build nearly 17,000 new public chargers for passenger vehicles — on top of the 152,000 available now.

Newsom also convened a special legislative session to bolster California's defenses against Trump's attacks. Lawmakers could pass $25 million in new funding for the California Department of Justice so the state can file litigation against the Trump administration. That will likely happen if Trump revokes the state's tailpipe pollution waiver.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump transition team, said that Trump plans to stop what he says are attacks on gas-powered cars.

"When he takes office, President Trump will support the auto industry, allowing space for both gas-powered cars AND electric vehicles," she said in an email.

Ann Carlson, a professor of environmental law at the University of California at Los Angeles, told Business Insider that she expects the Trump administration to face an uphill legal battle.

She said the EPA has approved California's authority to set strict rules for tailpipe pollution for decades because the state's air quality is so bad. Otherwise, areas including Los Angeles and the Central Valley wouldn't comply with federal air pollution laws and could be penalized.

"The sanction is the withholding of federal highway funds," Carlson — who recently served as chief counsel to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — said. "It's quite draconian. So California has a pretty good argument that it needs these waivers to meet federal law."

The Supreme Court last week agreed to consider a lawsuit that oil and gas producers filed against the EPA over its waivers allowing California to set stricter limits on tailpipe pollution than the federal government. However, SCOTUS will only decide whether fossil fuel makers have standing to sue over what they say is bureaucratic overreach and won't consider whether California's waiver is legal.

James Di Filippo, a principal policy analyst at the research firm Atlas Public Policy, said automakers will likely continue to walk back their EV investments while the legal battles play out. Companies could seek another compromise with California to restore more certainty as they plan new vehicle models for years to come.

"If they're uncertain about a regulatory outcome, they'll default to a less intense push," he said.

• Auto execs see an opportunity to roll back state EV mandates under President-elect Donald Trump.
• Nissan and Toyota say state rules requiring a rapid uptick in EV sales are unrealistic.
• Automakers are facing slowing EV demand, job cuts, and competition from China.

Some auto executives see an opportunity with the incoming Trump administration to roll back state rules requiring a rapid uptick in electric vehicle sales.

Executives at Nissan, Toyota, and the auto industry's largest US lobbying group say it will be impossible for the industry to meet aggressive timelines to phase out gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035 in a dozen states including California and New York, as well as Washington, DC. In six states, a target kicks in in 2026, when at least 35% of new car sales must be EVs.

"It will take a miracle to be achieved," Jérémie Papin, senior vice president of Nissan, said this week during an event in Washington, DC. "That's where others need to do a reality check on what's possible."

He noted that EVs accounted for about 9% of new car sales nationwide in the third quarter — a record, but still far short of what regulators are requiring by 2026.

Automakers, facing lower-than-expected demand for EVs this year, are pulling back on production, and some companies are cutting jobs to save costs. At the same time, they have poured billions of dollars into EVs and executives say they are committed to the transition, especially to stay competitive with China as it churns out more affordable EVs. That balancing act has put the industry in a delicate position with Trump who railed against EVs on the campaign trail, vowing to kill tax credits and other incentives encouraging Americans to buy them.

Now the industry is strategizing how to influence Trump, including on EV sales requirements they view as too ambitious. Trump will likely take their side.

At a campaign event in Michigan in October, he said no state would be allowed to ban gas-powered cars. Trump during his first term tried to revoke California's authority to set stricter limits on tailpipe pollution than the federal government. California is granted that authority under the Clean Air Act but must get waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency. Biden restored the states' authority — a move currently being litigated and could reach the Supreme Court.

To avoid uncertainty, a group of automakers, including BMW, Ford, Honda, and Volkswagen, struck an agreement with California in 2020 to follow the state's rules through 2026.

The rules are stricter than federal regulations issued earlier this year by the Biden administration's EPA. Those federal rules aren't an "EV mandate," as Trump falsely said on the campaign trail. Rather, automakers can choose how to curb greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks, SUVs, and vans sold between 2027 and 2032. The agency estimated the rules could boost EVs to up to 56% of new car sales, with the rest from a mix of hybrids and gas vehicles.

'Not ready to go electric'

Dealers, which were the first to sound the alarm on changes in the EV market last year, have argued that state and federal emissions requirements are out of step with demand. As companies push to meet these requirements, dealers complain they are stuck with unpopular EVs on their lots.

"A majority of customers are simply not ready to go electric right now," Dave Kelleher, a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealer in Pennsylvania, told BI. "Maybe with a new administration, some of those fines will become a thing of the past, or even mitigated."

Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for Trump's transition effort, said Trump will stop attacks on gas-powered cars.

"When he takes office, President Trump will support the auto industry, allowing space for both gas-powered cars AND electric vehicles," she said in an email.

John Bozella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents companies producing nearly all the new vehicles sold in the US, sent a letter to Trump in November asking that he ease emissions regulations but keep EV tax incentives fueling domestic investment in the supply chain.

An analysis commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that companies have announced $312 billion in planned investments in EVs and battery production since Biden took office in 2021, fueled partly by tax incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act.

One automaker, Toyota, supports doing away with EV mandates and subsidies altogether. In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Toyota Chief Operating Officer Jack Hollins wrote that state mandates distort the market because companies funnel zero-emissions vehicles to those locations and ultimately limit choices for customers.

General Motors initially sided with Trump in his crusade against California's EV rules, but dropped its support of the legal battle after Biden won the 2020 election. It's unclear whether the automaker would once again side with Trump if he tries to roll back emissions requirements. Paul Jacobson, General Motors' executive vice president and chief financial officer, told reporters that ideally there'd be more consistency between federal and state rules. But the automaker will respect regulators' authority, he said.

"There's a lot at stake here," Jacobson said during the event in Washington. "That's why we talk about being nimble across the board, because sometimes it's the marketplace and sometimes it might be the regulatory environment. But we can't make excuses for poor performance. It's not just Washington. It's China, it's Europe. There's a lot of things going on all over the world and we have to be able to respond to that."

• Elon Musk says he wants to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• The CFPB was created after the 2008 crisis to protect consumers from financial abuses.
• The CFPB has recouped billions for consumers but has long faced political and legal challenges.

In his efforts to cut government costs, Elon Musk has thrown his support behind slashing a federal office created in the wake of the Great Recession to regulate financial services used by Americans.

"Delete CFPB," Musk wrote on X early Wednesday of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. "There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies."

Musk, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, has been tasked with heading up the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and finding ways to reduce spending and streamline bureaucracy within the federal government. The unofficial advisors have floated "deleting" entire agencies, laying off staff, and enforcing return-to-office mandates.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Trump's transition team said she had nothing to add to Musk's statement.

While it's unclear how DOGE and the incoming Trump Administration would abolish agencies, if it does, the CFPB could be on the chopping block. Here's a look at its purpose, employee makeup, and political controversies.

Why it was created

The CFPB was created by Congress as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. The law aimed to strengthen oversight of Wall Street after its risky mortgage lending practices caused the global financial crisis. The CFPB has a broad mandate to protect Americans from deceptive or abusive practices by US financial firms. The agency investigates consumer complaints related to credit cards, loans, bank accounts, and debt collection and enforces consumer protection laws.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a professor at Harvard Law School, originally proposed the agency in 2007. In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Warren to head the CFPB's steering committee to help establish it.

"The time for hiding tricks and traps in the fine print is over," Warren said during a White House ceremony that year. "This new bureau is based on the simple idea that if the playing field is level and families can see what's going on, they will have better tools to make better choices."

How many people it employs

As of March 2024, the CFPB employed just under 1,700 people, earning an average of about $184,000 a year, according to the Office of Personnel Management. The Bureau's 2024 financial report broke that workforce into six groups; about 43% of CFPB's employees work in the supervision and enforcement of financial institutions, 18% in operations supporting the Bureau's other initiatives, and 14% in research, monitoring, and regulations.

What it has accomplished

Since its founding, the CFPB has recouped $19.6 billion for consumers through direct compensation, canceled debt, and reduced loan principals.

The agency has also issued $5 billion in civil penalties against banks, credit unions, debt collectors, payday lenders, for-profit colleges, and other financial services companies. That money is deposited into a victims' relief fund, with nearly 200 million people eligible for relief.

Some of CFPB's most high-profile enforcement actions have been against Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The agency in 2023 accused Bank of America of harming hundreds of thousands of customers by charging illegal fees, withholding credit card cash and reward points, and enrolling them in credit card accounts without their knowledge. Bank of America agreed to pay $250 million. In 2022, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $3.7 billion — a record sum — after a CFPB investigation alleged the bank mismanaged auto loans, mortgages, and deposit accounts, causing some customers to lose their vehicles and homes.

Last week, the agency finalized a rule expanding its oversight to big tech companies like Apple, Google, and Venmo, which offer digital wallets and payment apps and process some 13 billion transactions a year. Earlier this year, the CFPB also limited credit card late fees to $8 a month, compared to the average $32 fee charged by issuers in 2022.

Political controversy

Democrats designed the CFPB to have political independence by funding it through the Federal Reserve rather than While Democrats argue that the CFPB's independence is crucial to its efficacy, Republicans say the agency's funding source and governing structure make it unaccountable to the public and encourage regulatory overreach.

Since its founding, the CFPB has faced legal challenges from Republicans and the banking industry, who've taken issue with a slew of agency policies, including those regulating credit card late fees and those making it easier for consumers to switch between banks.

In May 2024, the Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to the agency's funding structure, reversing a lower court decision in a 7-2 ruling. The high court's decision — authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative — has bolstered the agency but likely won't shield it from ongoing criticism and legal attacks.

Not everything the agency does has courted controversy. Recently, the agency won praise from Republicans for a new rule that would allow consumers to have more control over how their financial data is used by banks and other financial firms.

• Trump's Cabinet picks for Interior, Energy, and EPA are allies of the oil and gas industry.
• They plan to expand drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and on federal lands and roll back climate rules.
• Scientists warn that burning more fossil fuels will worsen the climate crisis.

President-elect Donald Trump wants to stack his Cabinet with oil and gas supporters who plan to make it easier to drill on federal lands and waters and repeal climate rules for the industry.

If confirmed by the Senate, three key nominees would largely be responsible for executing Trump's "drill, baby, drill" agenda across the federal government.

Trump tapped Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, a Republican with ties to fossil-fuel executives, to serve as interior secretary. The Interior Department leases millions of acres of public lands and waters for oil and gas drilling.

Chris Wright, the CEO of the fracking company Liberty Energy, is nominated to serve as energy secretary. The Energy Department's pause on approvals of new export terminals for shipping US gas overseas is a top target of the incoming Trump administration, as are billions of dollars' worth of loans and grants accelerating the US transition to renewable energy.

And Lee Zeldin, a former congressman from New York who often voted against climate legislation, has been tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates pollution from cars, trucks, power plants, and oil and gas infrastructure.

Burgum would coordinate the effort as the chair of the National Energy Council, which Trump in a statement on Truth Social said would consist of all the departments and agencies involved with "permitting, regulating, producing, generating, distributing, and transporting energy." Cutting red tape and regulations is their mandate, Trump said.

Scientists say that the US and other major economies must reduce the burning of fossil fuels to slow the climate crisis — which is already making hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, and droughts more destructive around the globe. Trump and his allies in the oil and gas industry argue that the US should boost production to drive down prices and help lower inflation, an issue voters cited as a main concern in the election this year. Energy analysts have said gas prices are mostly determined by global supply and demand, not the actions of any one president.

Here are three actions Trump's Cabinet is gearing up to take, based on interviews with several groups helping shape his agenda. When asked about these priorities, Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance campaign, said: "The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.

Resume approvals of new gas export facilities

At the Energy Department, Wright, if confirmed, is expected to start approving permits for new gas export terminals, which have largely been paused in 2024 by the Biden administration.

Biden paused approvals of new terminals in January until the department could analyze their impacts on greenhouse-gas emissions and energy costs for consumers. A federal judge blocked the pause this summer, and the department has greenlighted one permit since then. Republicans and the oil and gas industry accused the Biden administration of intentionally holding up the process. They argue the delays undercut America's leverage over its competitors, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia, and cost jobs at home.

The pause didn't affect terminals already under construction, which are on track to double US gas exports by the end of this decade, federal data shows. Some energy analysts and consumer advocates have said America's dominance in the global market could expose customers to more-volatile prices. A cold snap in Europe or unrest in the Middle East could spike demand for gas — and therefore prices — and the climate crisis is increasing the risks of extreme weather shocks.

"The incoming administration has an opportunity to bolster America's geopolitical strength by lifting the Department of Energy's LNG permitting pause, swiftly processing all pending export applications, and ensuring the open access of American energy to global markets," Amanda Eversole, the chief advocacy officer of the American Petroleum Institute, told reporters during a call last week.

Permit more oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico

The Interior Department between 2024 and 2029 is set to hold three lease sales for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico — the fewest number since the program began decades ago. The sales were required by the Inflation Reduction Act, which directed the department to offer a minimum amount of oil and gas leases before opening an auction for offshore-wind developers.

The oil and gas industry is pushing the Trump administration to issue a new five-year offshore-leasing program.

"There are companies that would pay for leases in the western Gulf of Mexico today if there was an auction held," said Kenny Stein, the vice president for policy at the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group advising Trump's energy agenda. "They have platforms and equipment already in place and could start drilling quickly."

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods similarly told CNBC earlier this month that there were areas in the Gulf of Mexico that could be tapped for more oil production in the long term. He doesn't expect a major US oil boom, however, because the market is already well supplied, he said.

The incoming Trump administration is also expected to shrink national monuments in the West to open up more public lands to drilling and mining, though those moves would likely be challenged by environmental groups in court, Stein said.

Roll back climate rules

Trump has promised to "kill" the EPA's regulations that limit emissions from cars, trucks, power plants, and oil and gas wells, pumps, and storage tanks. He has also called the Inflation Reduction Act the "green new scam" and promised to claw back subsidies for renewable energy under the law.

It's a replay of Trump's first term, when the EPA scrapped nearly 100 environmental rules. This time, some climate rules have support from automakers and big oil and gas companies. Woods of ExxonMobil told Semafor last week that the Trump administration should keep regulations to curb methane emissions from oil and gas infrastructure. The largest US automaker group has said that the future is electric and companies are investing billions in the transition. But Trump attacked electric vehicles on the campaign trail, adopting the oil and gas lobby's messaging.

A full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act is unlikely, in part because the majority of $220 billion in investments in manufacturing EVs, batteries, solar panels, and other renewables technologies are flowing to Republican congressional districts, David Brown, the director of the energy-transition service at Wood Mackenzie, said in a statement.