On Tuesday, April 8, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order entitled Protecting American Energy from State Overreach.
The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to identify state laws and policies that burden the development and use of domestic energy resources [1] and that “are or may be unconstitutional, preempted by federal law, or otherwise unenforceable.” The attorney general is directed to prioritize identification of all laws that mention “climate change,” “environmental, social, and governance” initiatives, “environmental justice,” or “greenhouse gas” emissions, as well as those that collect carbon penalties or carbon taxes. Once identified, the attorney general must take action to stop the enforcement of these laws and submit a report with recommendations to the president within 60 days—by June 7, 2025.
The order is part of the administration’s push to “unleash” American energy. [2] The order argues that states have gone beyond their constitutional boundaries in establishing and enforcing energy policies. The president characterized such state laws and policies as both “overreaching” and “ideologically driven.” By way of example, the order calls out New York’s and Vermont’s “Climate Superfund Laws” [3] as “retroactive ‘climate change’ extortion.” The order also chastises the California cap-and-trade program [4] as “punishing” business. The order comes as part of a slew of executive actions designed to bolster the coal industry. [5] In a Tuesday press conference, the president vowed to direct the U.S. Department of Justice to “identify and fight every single unconstitutional state or legal regulation that’s putting our coal miners out of business.” [6]
While the order itself is not prescriptive for the attorney general’s review of these laws, it precedes a variety of possible federal actions designed to stop the enforcement of any identified laws. Such federal actions might include litigation, rulemaking designed to federally preempt state law or policies, or withholding of federal funding.
[1] Domestic energy resources here include, in particular, oil, natural gas, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources. This is consistent with the definition in Executive Order 14154 (Jan. 20, 2025). Unleashing American Energy, Exec. Order No. 14,154 (Jan. 20, 2025).
[2] See Exec. Order No. 14,154.
[3] New York Climate Change Superfund Act, S2129A (as codified at N.Y. State Fin. Law § 97-m (2024)); Vermont Climate Superfund Act, S.259 (as codified at Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 10, § 597 (2024)).
[4] See Cap-and-Trade Program, Cal. Air Res. Bd., https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/cap-and-trade-program (last visited Apr. 9, 2025).
[5] See Executive Order, Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241, (Apr. 8, 2025); Executive Order, Regulatory Relief for Certain Stationary Sources to Promote American Energy, (Apr. 8, 2025); Executive Order, Strengthening the Reliability and Security of the United States Electric Grid, (Apr. 8, 2025).
[6] President Trump Signs Executive Order to Support Coal Industry, YouTube (Apr. 8, 2025), https://youtu.be/kkg11fbLvik.
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