Trump seeks energy independence through discarding climate change laws
Last week, President Donald Trump signed another Executive Order promoting domestic energy production and limiting the states’ ability to curb actions encouraging climate change.
Trump’s EO is intended to maintain U.S. energy dominance, which he believes some state laws are thwarting. “American energy dominance is threatened when State and local governments seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authorities. . . These State laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration’s objective to unleash American energy. They should not stand.”
This EO directs the U.S. Attorney General to “ . . . 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.”
In the EO, Trump explicitly faults State laws that “purportedly” address climate change. This would include State laws that cover “. . . environmental, social, and governance” issues. For example, “environmental justice,” “greenhouse gas” emissions, and funds to collect carbon penalties or carbon taxes are part of the efforts to increase the use of oil, gas and coal.
California was a specific example of the types of laws, which Trump wants to limit or to eliminate. In the EO, he wrote “California, for example, punishes carbon use by adopting impossible caps on the amount of carbon businesses may use, all but forcing businesses to pay large sums to ‘trade’ carbon credits to meet California’s radical requirements.”
New York and Vermont laws were also specifically identified as laws which need to be repealed.
This is an example of states trying to dictate national energy policy, according to the President. This contradicts Federalism in his opinion, “. . . by projecting the regulatory preferences of a few States into all States.”
Pamela Bondi, the Attorney General is to report back to Trump in 60 days, on what efforts and actions her department has taken to stop the enforcement of State laws and continuation of any civil actions which she has already determined to be illegal.
