President Donald Trump came into office with a slogan: “promises made, promises kept.” And he’s already making good on his promise to undo the Biden administration’s actions on clean energy and climate.
In less than 24 hours on the job, Trump has already signed 46 presidential actions, at least five of which target the energy industry. The blitz includes everything from temporarily pausing wind leasing to pulling the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. Taken together, the orders reflect the priorities of an administration intent on dismantling support for clean resources that Trump personally dislikes — and in a far more calculated and coordinated way than his first term.
A ‘national energy emergency’
Trump has declared an “energy emergency” in order to unleash the executive’s emergency powers to support more fossil fuel development. These include suspending the Clean Air Act.
“The energy and critical minerals identification, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, and generation capacity of the United States are all far too inadequate to meet our Nation’s needs,” the order reads.
For context, since 2019 the United States has been a net exporter of energy. Natural gas exports in particular reached a record high in 2023.
The order directs agencies to exercise emergency powers to facilitate energy resource development, and orders expedited review under the Endangered Species Act.
It also cites concerns like national security and regional vulnerabilities, and specifically highlights the Northeast and the West Coast — a thinly veiled reference to the ambitious clean energy policies of largely blue state governments in those regions.
The Brennan Center for Justice described the emergency powers system as “vulnerable to executive abuse,” given how much power it prompts Congress to cede to the president.
‘Unleashing American energy’
The executive order titled “unleashing American energy” is arguably Trump’s most sweeping act. It aims to walk back key climate and energy policies of the Biden administration, which it describes as “burdensome and ideologically motivated,” with the stroke of a pen.
The order revokes 12 executive orders signed by President Biden between 2021 and 2023.
It immediately terminates the American Climate Corps program; eliminates the country’s electric vehicle mandate, Biden’s non-binding goal of ensuring that half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. were electric by 2030; and pauses disbursement of funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for certain clean energy initiatives such as the EV charging station program.
The order also directs agency review of key environmental policies, such as the social cost of carbon and any others that “impose undue burdens” on energy development. It also encourages energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, and establishes a goal for the U.S. of becoming a leading producer of critical minerals.
While there are limits to how an executive order can change laws passed by Congress — such as both the IRA and the infrastructure law — the administration can cause problems by freezing funding and canceling programs.
A pause for the wind industry
It’s been a bad day for the wind industry. Trump took two key actions in a single executive order, to both pause federal offshore leasing and “review” federal leasing and permitting practices more broadly.
The temporary pause will not affect existing leases, but does order a review of them.
The broader review of the country’s wind leasing practices cites concerns about “the economic costs associated with the intermittent generation of electricity and the effect of subsidies on the viability of the wind industry.” The “intermittent generation” language echoes the framing used by Doug Burgum, the likely head of the Interior Department, in his Senate nominee hearing last week.
The order directly addresses the Lava Ridge Wind Project, which had planned to build 400 wind turbines on public lands in Idaho.
And it orders an assessment of “the environmental impact and cost to surrounding communities of defunct and idle windmills,” and recommends that authorities require their removal. (Wind turbines are in fact not the same as windmills.)
In the hours after the order was signed, the shares of several European wind companies plunged.
Pulling out of Paris
As he did in his first term, Trump has also pulled the country from the Paris Agreement, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Nearly every other country in the world — 194 states plus the entire European Union — is a party to the 2015 pledge to keep global warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius.
The order also revokes and rescinds the country’s international climate finance plan, which devotes public money to developing countries grappling with climate change.
Estimates vary, but certain research suggests that achieving net zero by 2050 will require at least $7 trillion in annual investments. COP29, which took place in November, was largely devoted to coming up with a new target for global climate finance. The tense meetings landed on a goal of raising at least $1.3 trillion per year, including $300 billion specifically from developed countries, by 2035.
Reversing drilling restrictions in Alaska
The fifth executive order, titled “Unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential,” aims to open drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and National Petroleum Reserve.
The latter is a pristine and ecologically significant tract of 19.6 million acres in the North Slope region, and has been politically controversial for decades. The oil and gas industry has long called for more drilling in the region, and Trump opened 1.5 million acres for leasing during his first term; that lease sale only attracted three bidders and generated far less than the Trump administration had anticipated.
The order calls on the country to “fully avail itself of Alaska’s vast lands and resources for the benefit of the Nation and the American citizens who call Alaska home,” by expediting permitting and leasing in the region.
