Suspected arson at Bayer executive’s home being investigated by FBI: Sources

(WASHINGTON) — On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump announced some energy and environmental policy priorities that represent a stark departure from U.S. climate policy under former President Joe Biden.

His professed policies include a declaration of a “national energy emergency,” a rollback of the previous administration’s vehicle emissions standards — which were released last March — and the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, which is a major international agreement intended to reduce the impacts of global warming.

On energy
Trump said during his second inaugural address Monday afternoon that he will declare a “national energy emergency” during his first day in office and “drill, baby, drill.”

“We have the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it,” Trump said. “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”

The U.S. became a net energy exporter in 2019, during Trump’s first term — a status maintained under the Biden administration. In 2024, the U.S. reached an annual record of 13.2 million barrels per day of crude oil production, according to the Energy Information Administration. Last week, the EIA forecast additional growth for U.S. crude oil production this year in its most recent short-term energy outlook.

America is also already the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas, according to the EIA. The Biden administration paused the approval of additional LNG export facilities last January, with several project proposals awaiting approvals at that time. Ahead of the inauguration, the Trump administration said that it intended to undo this pause and expand LNG exports further.

On EV standards
Trump also said Monday that he would “end the Green New Deal” and “revoke the electric vehicle mandate,” in a statement that references Biden-era rules from the Environmental Protection Agency regulating tailpipe emissions from both standard and heavy-duty vehicles.

“With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers,” Trump said. “In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.”

Trump’s comments misrepresent the Biden-era rules, which were not a mandate for automakers to manufacture electric vehicles and did not require Americans to buy any specific type of car. The standards, released in March 2024, established an average of allowed emissions across a vehicle manufacturer’s entire fleet of offered vehicles. They affected only newly manufactured cars from model years 2027 to 2032.

At the time, Biden administration officials emphasized that there were multiple pathways to compliance with the new tailpipe standards, including the use of improved internal combustion engines, hybrids and fully electric cars.

On the Paris climate accords
In a press release, Trump also said he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Day 1 — a move that would make good on one of his campaign’s promises.

The Paris Agreement was originally ratified at the annual United Nations Climate Conference (also known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP) in 2015. It intended to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels — a metric scientists believed would significantly reduce the impacts of climate change.

The world exceeded this metric for the first time in 2024, which was the warmest year on record according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

During his first term in office, Trump withdrew from the agreement; however, Biden re-entered it on his first day in office. The Biden administration implemented a slate of policies meant to address the country’s contribution to climate change and help mitigate emissions.

Both priorities are widely expected to change under the new Trump administration.

With another withdrawal, it seems Trump renders moot the Nationally Determined Contribution released by the Biden administration last month. That NDC, required by the Paris Agreement to be updated every five years, claimed the U.S. was setting a goal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions more than 60% by the year 2035.

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(MATTHEWS, N.C.) — A North Carolina woman is charged with attempted murder after allegedly locking her boyfriend in a storage unit, where he was stuck for several days with no food or water before being rescued, police said.

Robin Deaton, 52, of Matthews, North Carolina, has been arrested on attempted murder and kidnapping charges, the Monroe Police Department said. She was booked into jail early Thursday after a manhunt by police.

Her 51-year-old boyfriend had been locked in the unit on Thursday, police said. Deaton allegedly convinced him to crawl to the back of the unit to get her something, then slammed it shut and said, “This is what you get,” according to police.

He had no food, water or power source, and there were two locks on the storage unit, police said.

The man called 911 on Monday and told the dispatcher that his girlfriend had locked him in her storage unit at Cooper Storage in Monroe.

“I’ve been locked in a storage unit for about a week now, and I’ve just now found my phone,” he said in the 911 call, released by Union County Emergency Services. “My girlfriend locked me in here. She doubled up my lock, and I don’t know how she put me in it but she put me in here.”

He said he was in unit 43 and his phone was about to die. When asked if he needed emergency services, he said, “I just need to get out of here.”

“I just can’t breathe. I haven’t had nothing to drink or anything,” he said.

Officers responded to the facility around 1:15 p.m. Monday, according to the incident report.

The man was taken to an area hospital but has since been released, Charlotte, North Carolina, ABC affiliate WSOC reported.

The incident report listed the crime as false imprisonment, though detectives sought higher charges for Deaton’s arrest warrant based on the investigation, the police spokesperson said.

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(NEW YORK) — The Trump administration has instructed New York City to end its congestion pricing program, the first of its kind in the nation, by March 21 in a newly released letter.

The Federal Highway Administration said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority must stop collecting tolls by that date to allow for an “orderly cessation.”

The letter is dated Feb. 20, a day after the U.S. Department of Transportation said it pulled federal approval of the plan following a review requested by President Donald Trump.

New York officials have said they will not turn off the tolls without a court order.

“We have said that you may have asked for orderly cessation, which was the phrase that came in the letter to us. I will propose something in the alternative — orderly resistance,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during remarks before the MTA board on Wednesday.

The MTA said it is challenging the Trump administration’s reversal in federal court, seeking a declaratory judgment that the DOT’s move is not proper.

The congestion pricing plan, which launched on Jan. 5, charges passenger vehicles $9 to access Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours as part of an effort to ease congestion and raise funds for the city’s public transit system. During peak hours, small trucks and charter buses are charged $14.40 and large trucks and tour buses pay $21.60.

Hochul called the program’s early success “genuine” and “extraordinary” in her remarks to the MTA board.

The toll generated nearly $50 million in revenue in its first month, the MTA said this week.

From Jan. 5 to Jan. 31, tolls from the congestion pricing program generated $48.66 million, with the net revenue for that period $37.5 million when taking into account expenses to run the program, the MTA said.

The program is on track to generate $500 million in net revenue by the end of this year, as initially projected, the MTA said.

Congestion has also “dropped dramatically” since the program went into effect, Hochul said last week.

ABC News’ Clara McMichael contributed to this report.

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