Trump targets US state laws 'fundamentally irreconcilable' with energy dominance agenda

President Donald Trump has directed the US attorney general to block enforcement of state and local laws that impede production and use of critical minerals, fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and several renewable technologies.

Those include biofuels, geothermal, and hydropower, but omits biomass.

His executive order (EO) is one of several issued recently with potential to impact electric power projects if they survive expected legal challenges.

Since taking office in January, Trump has issued a blizzard of EOs that seek to promote his fossil-heavy energy agenda, while limiting development of certain renewable resources led by offshore wind.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, head of the US Department of Justice and federal government chief law enforcement officer, has until 7 June to compile a list of those laws and report to Trump on actions she has or will take to block their application.

“American energy dominance is threatened when State and local governments seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authorities,” Trump wrote in his EO, asserting that those laws “are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration’s objective to unleash American energy. They should not stand.”

It is uncertain whether the EO also takes aim at renewable portfolio standards adopted by 29 states, which require a certain percentage of a utility’s electricity come from wind, geothermal, small hydro, and solar.

“Many states have enacted, or are in the process of enacting, burdensome and ideologically motivated ‘climate change’ or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security,” he wrote.

Trump specifically mentions state laws that target or discriminate against out-of-state energy producers by imposing significant barriers to interstate and international trade. Also, those that subject energy producers to arbitrary or excessive fines through retroactive penalties.

“The federal government would have to prove any such laws impede interstate commerce or stray impermissibly into state regulation of the wholesale power market to be able to block enforcement,” law firm Norton Rose Fulbright said in a note to clients.

“The order is an effort to ensure that all states are rowing in the same direction as the Trump administration on energy policy,” it added.

Two other EOs signed by Trump seek to withdraw dozens and potentially many more regulations impacting energy projects and the environment.

He had earlier instructed federal agency heads to compile lists by Sunday of present federal regulations that they deem go beyond what Congress has authorised the agencies to do.

A new EO directs the agency heads to bypass the normal process of giving the public notice and an opportunity to comment.

It lists 10 US Supreme Court decisions as giving priority to this review-and-repeal effort for “evaluating each existing regulation’s lawfulness.”

A third EO directs certain federal agencies to “incorporate a sunset provision into their regulations governing energy production to the extent permitted by law.” The sunset date is 30 September 2026.

Such a move, Trump wrote, would compel those “agencies to reexamine their regulations periodically to ensure that those rules serve the public good.”

They include the Department of Energy (DoE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The EO also lists Department of Interior agencies that regulate energy development on federal lands including Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and US Fish and Wildlife Service.