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donald trump executive order

President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order aimed at reducing restrictions on oil drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic in order to “unleash American energy”.

He said it would create “thousands and thousands” of jobs, despite a downturn in the oil market.

The executive order could reverse a ban put in place by President Barack Obama in order to protect swathes of the ocean from development.

However, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said the decision was better than being held hostage by “foreign entities”.

Image source Wikimedia

Getting rid of Barack Obama’s environmental protections was one of Donald Trump’s promises to voters while on the campaign trail.

As he signed the order, called the America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, President Trump said: “Our country’s blessed with incredible natural resources, including abundant offshore oil and natural gas reserves, but the federal government has kept 94% of these offshore areas closed for exploration and production.

“This deprives our country of potentially thousands and thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in wealth.”

The order instructs the Department of Interior to come up with a new development plan for all federal waters off US coasts.

It is debatable how much income might be generated by a reversal of Barack Obama’s order. Worldwide prices for oil have dropped in recent years, with a review by news agency Reuters finding the amount of money oil companies spent in the central Gulf of Mexico’s annual lease sale dropped by more than 75% between 2012 and 2017.

Donald Trump has taken his first step to try to scale back financial services regulations.

The president signed an executive order to review the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulations, which some people on Wall Street say are overly-restrictive.

The law was brought in after the 2008-2009 financial crisis with the aim of avoiding another financial meltdown.

President Trump said earlier this week: “Dodd-Frank is a disaster.”

He added: “We’re going to be doing a big number on Dodd-Frank.”

Image source Flickr

Donald Trump made it a campaign pledge to repeal and replace the Dodd-Frank act, which also created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

This CFPB seeks to make sure banks, lenders, and other financial companies treat US consumers fairly.

Dodd-Frank, named after the Congressmen who campaigned for the legislation, was introduced to rein in banks’ risky practices by banks and other financial companies.

However, Trump administration officials have said Dodd-Frank did not achieve what it set out to do, and argue that is an example of government being overly-controlling.

News that a review was imminent sent banking shares higher on Wall Street and on the main stock markets in Europe. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase rose 4% and 3% respectively.

Gary Cohn, an adviser to Donald Trump and a former Goldman Sachs executive, told the Wall Street Journal: “The banks are going to be able to price products more efficiently and more effectively to consumers.”

The executive order directs the Treasury secretary to consult members of different regulatory agencies and the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and report back on potential changes.