On April 8, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO), "Protecting American Energy From State Overreach," aimed at "unleashing American energy" by directing the U.S. Attorney General (AG) to identify state laws and policies that burden the development of domestic energy resources and "are or may be unconstitutional, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable." The EO directs the AG to prioritize state law 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.
The EO is broadly written and may encompass a wide variety of state laws that address the above topics, but it does provide specific examples that may be targeted. For instance, the EO identifies New York and Vermont's "climate superfund" laws, which seek to collect billions of dollars from fossil fuel companies to pay for climate-change infrastructure projects and other related expenses, as "burdensome and ideologically motivated." In addition to New York and Vermont's existing climate superfund laws, several other states, including California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon, have been considering adopting similar legislation. The EO also cites California's mandatory cap-and-trade program, which sets a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allows companies to trade emissions allowances with each other, as a "radical" state approach to dictate national energy policy. Further, the EO targets tort actions brought by various states against energy companies for "climate change damages," which could be "crippling."
"These State laws and policies weaken our national security and devastate Americans by driving up energy costs for families coast-to-coast, despite some of these families not living or voting in States with these crippling policies[,]" the EO states. As such, the EO directs the AG to "expeditiously take all appropriate action" to halt the enforcement and continuation of civil actions associated with these state laws. The EO also directs the AG to, within 60 days from the date of the order, submit a report to the President regarding actions taken in response to the order's directives. Finally, the EO directs the AG to recommend any additional action necessary to halt the enforcement of these kinds of state laws.
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