Environmental Regulations and Climate Initiatives: A Targeted Rollback

During the first week of his second term, President Trump issued a slew of executive orders (EOs) and presidential memorandums that directly target environmental and climate initiatives addressed by previous administrations. The relevant EOs and memorandums are summarized in detail below. Here are the major outcomes of the environment- or climate-related executive actions taken by the president:

• Removal of the United States from the Paris Agreement
• Rescission of any “agreement, pact, accord, or similar commitment” made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
• Revocation of the US International Climate Finance Plan
• Termination of the American Climate Corps
• Disbandment of the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases and the rescission of its guidance
• Elimination of the “electric vehicle mandate”'
• Implementation of energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, including the Outer Continental Shelf
• Potential elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “social cost of carbon” calculation pertaining to all federal permitting or regulatory decisions
• Reevaluation of the legality and applicability of the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations
• Halting the onshore and offshore development of wind-generated electricity
• Revocation of environmental protections for Alaska’s federal and state lands to accelerate resource development

The following summarizes key EOs and presidential memorandums issued in the first two days of the new administration that directly affect environmental and climate issues. For more detail on the EOs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and their impact on federal programs and federal contracts specifically, as well as the potential impact on the private sector, please see Goodwin’s client alerts “Executive Order Mandates Termination of DEI Related Federal Contracts and Grants” and “President Trump Issues Executive Order Targeting Policies and Practices Designed to Ensure Equal Opportunity.”

Presidential Memorandum: Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis

Among other directives, the memorandum requires the heads of all executive departments and agencies to pursue appropriate actions to “eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances” (such requirements refer to environmental protections and regulations) and “eliminate harmful, coercive, ‘climate’ policies that increase the costs of food and fuel.”

Executive Order: Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements

The EO immediately withdraws the United States from the Paris Agreement and any “agreement, pact, accord, or similar commitment” made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The EO revokes and rescinds the US International Climate Finance Plan, an initiative under the Biden administration to scale up US international public climate finance to developing countries, and requires that the secretary of state, secretary of commerce, and the head of any department or agency that plans or coordinates international energy agreements to “prioritize economic efficiency, the promotion of American prosperity, consumer choice, and fiscal restraint in all foreign engagements that concern energy policy.”

Executive Order: Unleashing American Energy

In one of the more sweeping EOs issued by President Trump, this EO withdraws 12 Biden-era EOs relating to climate change, environmental justice, electric vehicles (EVs), and sustainability, including termination of the American Climate Corps, and serves to curb environmental regulation in favor of generating additional energy and natural resources. Significantly, the EO requires that funds or resources allocated to an entity or program that has been terminated by the EO to be disposed of in accordance with applicable law and requires expedited termination of contracts between the United States and third parties that were entered into for the purpose of effectuating the now withdrawn Biden-era EOs.

The EO provides that it is now the policy of the United States to:

• Encourage energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, including the Outer Continental Shelf
• Establish the United States’ position as a “leading producer and processor of non-fuel minerals, including rare earth minerals”
• Ensure all regulatory requirements pertaining to energy are “grounded in clearly applicable law”
• Eliminate the “electric vehicle mandate” by “removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access,” “terminating … state emissions waivers that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles,” and consider eliminating “unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies”
• Prioritize American consumers’ choice in goods and appliances, such as light bulbs, dishwashers, washing machines, gas stoves, water heaters, toilets, and showerheads, which are often produced in accordance with environmental regulations to curb energy and resource consumption
• Ensure the evaluation of the global effects of a regulation are separate from its domestic costs and benefits “to promote sound regulatory decision making and prioritize the interests of the American people”

The EO directs all heads of agencies to review agency actions to identify requirements that impose an undue burden on the use and development, including identification, of domestic energy resources, with a heightened focus on oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical minerals, and nuclear energy. Notably, wind-generated energy is not included in the EO’s listing of domestic energy resources. Within 30 days of the EO, agencies are directed to develop and start implementation of action plans to suspend, revise, or rescind agency actions that have been identified as unduly burdensome.

The EO revokes EO 11991 of May 24, 1977, which relates to the protection and enhancement of environmental quality, to expedite the permitting process for domestic energy extraction. The chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is to provide guidance on implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and propose rescinding CEQ’s NEPA regulations. The CEQ chairman is to convene a working group for the purpose of coordinating revisions of agency-level implementing regulations, providing that “all agencies must prioritize efficiency and certainty over any other objectives, including those of activist groups that do not align” with the policy goals of the EO or that can delay or add ambiguity to the permitting process. Additionally, the heads of agencies such as the EPA must “undertake all available efforts to eliminate all delays within their respective permitting processes.”

The director of the National Economic Council and the director of the Office of Legislative Affairs are to jointly propose recommendations to Congress that facilitate permitting and development of “interstate energy transportation” and “other critical energy infrastructure,” which includes pipelines, particularly in areas that “lack such development in recent years” and to provide “greater certainty in the Federal permitting process,” including “streamlining the judicial review of the application of NEPA.” The EO also requires that all federal permitting adjudications or regulatory processes be evaluated using only “legislated requirements for environmental considerations,” and it prohibits using methodologies that are “arbitrary or ideologically motivated.”

The EO disbands the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases and withdraws any guidance issued by the working group. The “social cost of carbon” is generally defined as the cost of damages created by one extra ton of carbon dioxide emissions. The administrator of the EPA is to consider eliminating the social cost of carbon calculation pertaining to all federal permitting or regulatory decisions within 60 days of the date of the EO. The EPA is also directed to reevaluate and make recommendations on the legality and applicability of “Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases Under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act” (December 15, 2009), which is the foundation of the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations.

Notably, the EO purports to terminate the Green New Deal by requiring all agencies to pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This includes the funding of EV charging stations. Agencies are also required to “review their processes, policies, and programs for issuing grants, loans, contracts, or any other financial disbursement” of appropriated funds for consistency with the EO’s policy objectives.

In early 2024, President Biden placed a pause on new permits for new liquified natural gas (LNG) export projects to allow the US national laboratories to study and evaluate the environmental and economic effects of the LNG export business. The EO directs the Department of Energy to expeditiously restart reviews of applications and approvals of LNG export projects, canceling the pause placed by the Biden administration.

The EO also encourages domestic mineral mining by requiring the secretary of the interior, secretary of agriculture, administrator of the EPA, chairman of CEQ, and heads of other relevant agencies to identify agency actions that “impose undue burdens on the domestic mining and processing of non-fuel minerals and undertake steps to revise or rescind such actions.” The Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture are ordered to reevaluate public lands that have been withdrawn from mining consideration. Further, the Department of the Interior is required to consider updating the US Geological Survey’s list of critical minerals to potentially include uranium and “prioritize efforts to accelerate the ongoing, detailed geologic mapping of the United States, with a focus on locating previously unknown deposits of critical minerals.” To effectuate additional mining, the secretary of energy is directed to “ensure that critical mineral projects … receive consideration for Federal support, contingent on the availability of appropriated funds.” Last, the secretary of state, secretary of commerce, secretary of labor, United States trade representative, and heads of any other relevant agencies are required to submit a report to the assistant to the president for economic policy that includes policy recommendations to “enhance the competitiveness of American mining and refining companies in other mineral-wealthy nations.” 

Executive Order: Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential

Under this EO, it is now US policy to “fully avail itself of Alaska’s vast lands and resources,” which includes maximizing the development and production of natural resources located on both federal and state lands within Alaska, expediting the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects in Alaska, and prioritizing the development of Alaska’s LNG potential.
It directs federal agencies to retract or revise restrictions, policies, and environmental reviews implemented since January 2021 that are designed to place restrictions on resource development of federal and state lands in Alaska and calls for the secretary of commerce, in coordination with the secretary of the interior, to immediately review, revise, or rescind any agency action “that may in any way hinder, slow or otherwise delay any critical project in the State of Alaska.”

Agencies are further directed to expedite the permitting, leasing, and infrastructure projects that are deemed critical for developing Alaska’s natural resources, including the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. The EO reinstates several of the first Trump administration’s management documents over oil-rich places in Alaska, such as the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A), and seeks to open oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The EO reverses the limits placed by the Biden administration on drilling activity in the NPR-A and reverses restrictions on logging and road building in a temperate rainforest that serves as a habitat for wolves, bears, and salmon. The EO also denies the pending request to the US Fish and Wildlife Service to establish an indigenous sacred site in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The EO calls for the government to prioritize the development of Alaska’s natural gas reserves “including the permitting of all necessary pipeline and infrastructure related to the Alaska LNG Project,” which seeks to develop Alaska’s North Slope natural gas reserves. In addition, the secretary of the Army, acting through the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, must provide “all assistance requested by the Governor of Alaska to facilitate the clearing and maintenance of transportation infrastructure.” 

Presidential Memorandum: Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects

In an effort to halt wind energy production for the purpose of generating electricity, the memorandum ceases any new leasing activity for offshore wind energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf. The withdrawal will temporarily prevent consideration of any area on the Outer Continental Shelf for any new or renewed wind energy leasing for the purpose of generating electricity or any “other such use derived from the use of wind.” This cessation and withdrawal does not apply to leasing related to any other purposes such as for oil, gas, minerals, and environmental conservation. Existing leases in Outer Continental Shelf areas remain unchanged for now, but they will be reviewed by the secretary of the interior with input from the attorney general. The review will assess the need to amend or terminate leases based on ecological, economic, and environmental factors and identify any legal grounds for these actions.

The memorandum also mandates a temporary halt and comprehensive review of federal wind leasing and permitting practices. During this review period, there will be no issuance or renewal of approvals, rights of way, permits, leases, or loans for onshore or offshore wind projects.

Additionally, the secretary of the interior is required to halt all activities for the Lava Ridge Wind Project in Idaho, requiring a new “comprehensive analysis of the various interests implicated by the Lava Ridge Wind Project and the potential environmental impacts.” 

Further, the secretary of the interior, secretary of energy, and administrator of the EPA are required to “assess the environmental impact and cost to surrounding communities of defunct and idle windmills” and provide a report to the president, through the assistant to the president for economic policy, issuing their findings and recommendations to require their removal.

Presidential Memorandum: Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California

This memorandum calls for reinstating the previous Trump administration’s plans “to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state.” During President Trump’s first term, Governor Newsom of California filed a lawsuit to stop the administration’s attempts to implement “improvements to California’s water infrastructure” due to concerns that they could negatively affect endangered fish species such as the Delta smelt. Now, within 90 days of this memorandum, the secretaries of commerce and the interior must report to the president regarding the progress made in the implementation of the memorandum.

Goodwin’s ESG & Impact Team has significant experience counseling clients on matters involving strategy regarding pro-ESG and anti-ESG initiatives at the federal and state levels, as well as compliance with statutory and regulatory obligations. Please contact the authors of this alert if you have questions. 

This informational piece, which may be considered advertising under the ethical rules of certain jurisdictions, is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute the rendering of legal advice or other professional advice by Goodwin or its lawyers. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.