President Trump’s three new energy executive orders: A quick overview 

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On April 8, President Trump signed three new executive orders (EOs) that address the United States’s energy sector.

The key themes of the EOs include ensuring the reliability and resilience of the electric grid, stopping the enforcement of illegal state laws that undermine the nation’s ability to unleash American energy, and reinvigorating the coal industry primarily by removing governmental barriers that hinder the use of coal.

Below is a short summary of the three EOs and what they do.

  1. EO 14262: Strengthening the Reliability and Security of the United States’ Electrical Grid

    According to the EO, the United States is committed to ensuring the reliability, resilience, and security of the electric power grid. A specific focus of the EO is addressing forecasted temporary interruptions in the electricity supply that are necessary to prevent a complete grid failure. This risk is only enhanced by the increasing energy demands for artificial intelligence. The EO directs the Secretary of Energy to streamline the Department of Energy’s processes for issuing orders under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to help address these concerns.

    Further, the EO directs the Secretary of Energy to develop a methodology that analyzes reserve margins for all regions of the bulk power supply, protect critical generation resources in at-risk regions, and prevent generation resources in excess of 50 megawatts from leaving the bulk-power system or converting to less efficient fuels.

  2. EO 14260: Protecting American Energy From State Overreach

    The United States thrives when energy is cheap, abundant, and easily tradable. However, there are a variety of state and local laws that may go beyond their statutory or constitutional authority. The EO highlights different laws of concern including those that discriminate against out-of-state energy producers, create arbitrary and retroactive fines on energy producers (often related to climate change), and other actions that raise energy prices for Americans.

    The EO calls upon the Attorney General to identify state and local laws, regulations, policies, etc. that are unconstitutional, preempted by federal law, or otherwise unenforceable and take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of them. In doing so, “[s]tate 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 shall be prioritized.”

  3. EO 14261: Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241

    Will Scharf, White House Staff Secretary, calls this EO “one of the most significant Executive Orders of [Trump’s] administration thus far.” He describes the EO as one that “directs all departments and agencies of the federal government to end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry, [this] ends the leasing moratorium that prevents new coal projects on federal land, and [it’s going to] accelerate all permitting and funding for new coal projects to allow the coal industry to flourish.”

    The EO does several specific things including directing the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council to designate coal as a “mineral” under EO 14241 (Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production). As a result of such designation, coal will be entitled “to all the benefits of a ‘mineral’ under that order.” In addition, the EO would, among other things, direct numerous agencies to review policies “that seek to transition the Nation away from coal production and electricity generation.” This EO is multifaceted, but the primary goal is to ensure the government is not creating obstacles for coal or discriminating against it.