Trump targets state climate laws in latest executive order

President Donald Trump issued an executive order (EO) Apr. 8 tasking Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to ensure states and cities follow federal climate and energy laws, not their own, more aggressive energy rules and climate standards.

“Burdensome and ideologically motivated state policies “threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security,” the order reads.

The EO directs Bondi to remove “illegitimate impediments” to develop, site, produce, invest in, or use US energy resources. Trump ordered states to focus on eliminating barriers related to domestic oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel, critical mineral, and nuclear resources.

Trump told Bondi to target state laws imposing carbon taxes and fees and those mentioning terms like “environmental justice” and “greenhouse gas emissions.” 

The order requires Bondi to identify and stop enforcement of state laws she determines illegal based on the EO, and to submit a report within 60 days outlining steps taken and to recommend further executive or legislative action.

Trump called out 3 states: California for its “radical” cap-and-trade program, in place since 2012; and Vermont and New York’s superfund policies that Trump called climate change ‘extortion laws’ that require fossil fuel companies to pay for past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.  

“The federal government cannot unilaterally strip states’ independent constitutional authority,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, co-chairs of the US Climate Alliance. “We are a nation of states — and laws — and we will not be deterred. We will keep advancing solutions to the climate crisis that safeguard Americans’ fundamental right to clean air and water, create good-paying jobs, grow the clean energy economy, and make our future healthier and safer.”

The US Climate Alliance is a bipartisan coalition of 24 governors committed to a net-zero future through state-led, high-impact climate action. 

The American Petroleum Institute (API) lauded Trump’s action “to hold states like New York and California accountable for pursuing unconstitutional efforts” to penalize oil and natural gas producers, said API senior vice-president and general counsel Ryan Meyer. “Directing the Department of Justice to address this state overreach will help restore the rule of law and ensure activist-driven campaigns do not stand in the way of ensuring the nation has access to an affordable and reliable energy supply.”