Trump Pledges To Rip Up Iran Deal; Israelis Say Not So Fast

Tim Daiss ,   CONTRIBUTOR

It seems that the general consensus in Israel would be to consider Trump their champion for pledging to trash the Iran nuclear deal – but not so.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on November 20, 2016. Netanyahu is reportedly scheduled to meet Donald Trump for this first time possibly in March, according to aides. Top of the agenda will be Iran. (Photo MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images)

Much has been made over Donald Trump’s surprising presidential win two weeks ago. The populist new president-elect hasn’t slowed down since then, giving plenty of fodder for both critics as well as supporters to digest.

While Trump puts together his cabinet, he is also talking about energy. According to reports, Trump has short-listed three names for Energy Secretary: James L. Connaughton chief executive of Nautilus Data Technologies and former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush, Robert E. Grady, a Gryphon Investors partner, and Continental Resources chief executive Harold Hamm – a champion of the nation’s oil and gas revolution.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Some of the energy issues facing the new administration include the Keystone XL pipeline, a politically divisive project that had been sidelined repeatedly by the Obama administration and finally rejected last November by the president.

If TransCanada resubmits an application, Trump pledged to green light the pipeline that would snake its way some 1,179-miles (1,897km) from oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would join an existing pipeline. During their first meeting after the election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) asked Trump to prioritize approving the pipeline.

Other energy decisions that will come across the new president’s desk include: considering what to do with the international Paris climate accord Obama has championed, trimming over-regulation that many claim has hobbled the country’s oil and gas industry, and the opening up of federal lands to oil and gas drilling  – something that could help restore budget-bleeding Alaska to the forefront of U.S. oil production.

Trump will also consider the role of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Obama’s Clean Power Plan. That particular plan calls for utilities to lower carbon emissions and was at the heart of Obama’s commitment to the Paris agreement.

However, of all the decisions intersecting energy and geopolitics that the new president will make once he takes office, his decision over the Obama brokered nuclear deal between Iran and the so-called P5+1 (Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the U.S. and the EU) could be the most controversial.

Since Tehran agreed in July 2015 to scale back its nuclear capabilities in return for the lifting of most international sanctions, it has ramped up its oil production and became a major player within OPEC again. Now, at 3.92 million barrels per day (bpd) of output, the country is nearing its pre-sanction output mark of 4 million bpd.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timdaiss/2016/11/22/trumps-iran-deal-rhetoric-israelis-say-not-so-fast/#66564a5b61c6