On April 8, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach” (the “Order”). The Order is aimed at “securing America’s energy dominance by removing unlawful and burdensome state-level impediments to domestic energy production.” The Order requires the Attorney General to:
- in consultation with the heads of appropriate executive departments and agencies, identify all State and local laws, regulations, causes of action, policies, and practices (collectively, “State laws”) “burdening the identification, development, siting, production, or use of domestic energy resources that are or may be unconstitutional, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable”;
- prioritize the identification of any such State laws purporting to “address ‘climate change’ or involving ‘environmental, social, and governance’ initiatives, ‘environmental justice,’ carbon or ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions, and funds to collect carbon penalties or carbon taxes”;
- expeditiously take all appropriate action to stop the enforcement of the identified State laws that the Attorney General determines to be illegal, and, by June 7, 2025, submit a report to the President regarding such actions; and
- recommend any “additional Presidential or legislative action necessary to stop the enforcement” of the identified State laws that the Attorney General determines to be illegal or “otherwise fulfill the purpose” of the Order.
View other S&C insights relating to President Trump’s recent executive orders.