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The recent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration mark a significant shift in U.S. trade policy that is expected to have a wide-ranging impact across multiple sectors, including in the energy sector.

On April 8 and 9, 2025, President Donald Trump issued five Presidential Actions (four Executive Orders and one Proclamation, collectively “Presidential Actions”) for the purposes of ensuring adequate and reliable energy generation, meeting growing energy demand, and addressing the national energy emergency declared on January 20, 2025 (EO 14156).

This update is a summary of the Energy-related Executive Orders that have been issued this week by the Administration.

For more than twenty years, the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”), and later, the United States‑Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”), have facilitated cross-border trade and investment among the United States, Mexico, and Canada through the elimination of virtually all financial barriers to trade.

On January 10, 2024, the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) published the final regulations governing the section 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit (“Final Regulations”).

On December 4, 2024, the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “Service”) issued final regulations [TD 10015] (the “Final Regulations”) for the energy credit available under section 48 (the “ITC”) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”).

On November 7, Vinson & Elkins hosted an Energy Transition and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Conference in its New York office.

Much has been written about the benefits of tax credit transfers following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), but questions remain as to how to actually effectuate a transfer.

On August 30, 2024, the Department of Treasury (the “Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued proposed regulations (the “Proposed Regulations”) providing additional guidance to taxpayers on the “Low-Income Communities Bonus” (“LICB”) available under section 48E(h) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.

In this article, published by PFI and written in conjunction with etasca, Alan Alexander, Lauren Davies, Andrew Nealon and Louis Molloy discuss the challenges and potential solutions for scaling Power-to-X (P2X) technologies to meet global net-zero targets. P2X involves converting renewable energy into low-carbon products like hydrogen, e-methanol, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

On May 29, 2024, the Treasury Department (the “Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “Service”) issued proposed regulations (REG-119283-23) (the “proposed regulations”) regarding the clean electricity production tax credit and the clean electricity investment tax credit provided by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IRA”)¹ and available under new sections 45Y and 48E, respectively, of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”).

By 2050, the cost of producing low-carbon hydrogen is expected to be five times higher in the most expensive regions than the least expensive regions, according to the Hydrogen Council.