Trump Signs Orders to Promote Fossil Fuels and End Climate Policies

And, he said, “We aren’t going to do the wind thing.”

Mr. Trump’s dramatic pivot to fossil fuels comes after the hottest year in recorded history and as scientists say the world is running out of time to keep global warming at relatively low levels. Last year, emissions from burning coal, oil and gas helped push average global temperatures past 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels. Scientists have said that every fraction of a degree of warming above that level brings greater risks from deadly heat waves, wildfires, drought, storms and species extinction.

Many of Mr. Trump’s energy policies cannot be achieved with the mere stroke of a pen because some would require action by federal agencies or Congress and others could face legal challenges. He also could not, by fiat, rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, or Denali in Alaska, the highest mountain peak in North America, to Mount McKinley. Mr. Trump promised to do both.

But taken together, the declarations underscore how Mr. Trump views the world: oil and gas are symbols of strength and power, and plentiful fossil fuels will ensure that the United States is able to dominate allies and rivals alike. Unspoken was the fact that the country is historically the biggest source of the greenhouse gases that are dangerously heating the planet.

Instead, Mr. Trump said the United States had “the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth, and we are going to use it. We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserve up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.”

The remarks earned a standing ovation in the Capitol Rotunda, where Mr. Trump spoke, and applause at the Hay-Adams hotel in downtown Washington, where some of the country’s leading oil and gas executives popped champagne and ate mini Pop-Tart pastries with Mr. Trump’s image. The party was sponsored by Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of Continental Resources, an oil company, who helped raise millions of dollars for Mr. Trump’s campaign.