Unleashing American Energy: Energy-Focused Executive Orders

Vinson & Elkins has been committed since the President’s inauguration to monitoring these developments and how to navigate the recent developments within the energy sector. This alert provides a continuation of thoughts and discussions from V&E’s Energy Update titled New Administration: Key Energy Issues Tied to Executive Orders, published on January 29, 2025. This analysis focuses on broader implications of this week’s Presidential Actions and their possible effects on the energy industry.

What are the general takeaways from the five Presidential Actions?

A consistent theme across all five Presidential Actions is the Administration’s continued push towards infrastructure development and its desire to ensure security and reliability across the energy sector. For example, demand for electricity is growing across the nation, with some estimates suggesting that demand will more than double over the next ten years.² Events in recent years have demonstrated that there is already a lack of supply during peak seasons (e.g., summer and winter) or catastrophic events (e.g., hurricanes, blizzards, and heat waves). The Trump Administration, as demonstrated in these Presidential Actions, seeks to make America “energy dominant,” through (1) streamlining administrative processes, (2) reducing regulatory red tape, (3) expanding domestic energy to include an increase in coal generation and (4) shifting away from state-led climate laws and initiatives.

(1) Streamlining Administrative Processes

The Presidential Actions task various agency heads with taking steps towards developing additional infrastructure while expediting certain procedural processes. For example, Section 3 of “Strengthening the Reliability and Security of the United States Electric Grid” (EO 14262) instructs the Secretary of Energy to take steps to expedite the Department of Energy’s approval of generation facility applications under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act. This mandate would allow new generation facilities to receive expedited approval under the Federal Power Act as deemed appropriate by the Secretary of Energy, which would allow for the rapid expansion of infrastructure.

(2) Reducing Regulatory Red Tape

Alongside streamlining regulatory processes, the Trump Administration also seeks to minimize certain regulatory barriers. In “Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting to Unleash American Energy,” the Administration identifies four (4) executive agencies and six (6) agency subcomponents that must issue a sunset rule for specified regulations and amendments under statutes within each agency department. This sunset rule must impose a conditional sunset date of one year after the date the sunset rule becomes effective. Once the conditional sunset date passes, the applicable regulation will cease to be effective unless the agency determines an extension is warranted. No agency may extend a conditional sunset date more than five (5) years in the future.

In effect, many regulations covered within this Executive Order will likely cease to be effective within five years, unless this Executive Order is repealed. This Executive Order captures many regulatory processes affecting the energy sector, including but not limited to: (i) the Federal Power Act of 1935; (ii) the Natural Gas Act of 1938; (iii) the Energy Policy Act of 2005; (iv) the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974; and (v) the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, among others.

The broad scope of the Order directly pursues the Trump Administration’s goal of reducing regulatory red tape by targeting agencies with statutory ties to energy development, including energy generation, production, and transmission, which would simplify infrastructure development. However, this Order may increase regulatory uncertainty as it is now unclear which regulations will remain effective and how agency rulemaking will occur moving forward. For example, many of the implicated regulations are those under which the agencies grant permits, authorizations, and approvals for infrastructure. To the extent those regulations are revoked without adequate public comment, there may be an increased litigation risk for projects authorized under them. V&E will continue to monitor the implementation of this Order to provide counsel to clients on how to address the changes, if any, to the regulatory landscape.

(3) Expansion of Domestic Energy to Include More Coal

The Presidential Actions also turn an eye to coal. This Administration puts an emphasis on coal as one of the keys to ensuring grid reliability, and several of the Presidential Actions require agencies to prioritize coal generation and development. “Regulatory Relief for Certain Stationary Sources to Promote American Energy” provides a two-year exemption from heightened standards under the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for certain stationary sources. While this Proclamation does not explicitly instruct agencies to prioritize coal, an aim of the Proclamation was to avoid the risk of shutting down coal-fired power plants, which would eliminate jobs and could place the electric grid at risk. The Proclamation would allow these stationary sources, largely coal-fired power plants, to remain in operation without becoming subject to the heightened MATS standards until 2029.

“Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241” (EO 14261) provides a more in-depth view of the Administration’s newfound focus on coal. Among several mandates, the Executive Order instructs several agency heads to prioritize coal within their respective departments. The Order directs the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council to designate coal as a “mineral” under Section 2 of Executive Order 14241, which would allow for expedited financing of coal-related projects. The Order directs the Secretaries of Interior, Commerce, Agriculture, and Energy to, among other requirements, (i) identify coal resources on federal lands, (ii) prioritize leasing these lands for coal development, (iii) draft proposals on how to utilize coal production to aid development of artificial intelligence data centers, and (iv) analyze the impact of coal on electricity costs and grid reliability. These requirements, among others listed in the Order, signal the Administration’s heavy push towards retaining and promoting coal generation.

(4) Shifting Away from State Climate Laws

Finally, the Presidential Actions signal a shift away from “climate change” related policies towards coal production. In “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach,” (EO 14260) the Administration identifies a number of states with policies that are “irreconcilable” with unleashing American energy. These policies include cap and trade programs, carbon taxes, compensatory payments for greenhouse gas emissions, and delay of permit application review. The Administration tasks the Attorney General with ceasing all state laws deemed to be preempted by federal law, unconstitutional or otherwise unenforceable. In effect, the Attorney General may strike down state laws related to climate change, environmental justice, greenhouse gas emissions, or carbon taxes.

Furthermore, Section 6 of Executive Order 14261 instructs agency heads to identify policies within their department that seeks to transition the nation away from coal generation. Once these policies are identified, the agency head must consider revising or rescinding the policy within 60 days. Additionally, any agency involved in financing energy products must rescind policies that discourage investment in coal production. Thus, the impact of these two Executive Orders is twofold: (i) states may no longer have authority to promote climate change initiatives, and (ii) executive agencies will likely remove policies that discourage the production of coal.

What does this mean for Energy Infrastructure in the United States?

In the short term, these Presidential Actions will allow more infrastructure to be built in the United States. With expedited application processing and less overall regulation, energy facilities can be built and placed into operation more quickly. As emphasized in several of the Presidential Actions, federal control over coal production will result in less state interference, which would also allow construction and operation to move at an expedited rate.

Additionally, the Trump Administration seeks to reinstate coal as a dominant energy source that will last for the long-term. All Presidential Actions empower coal in either a direct or indirect manner, seeking to promote infrastructure development while reducing barriers in the way. An example of this comes from Section 3 of Executive Order 14262, which requires the Secretary of Energy to impose a protocol that would prevent generation resources over 50 megawatts of capacity from leaving the bulk-power system or converting to a different source of fuel. In effect, if many of the generation resources brought online in the near future that (i) have over 50 megawatts of capacity and (ii) use coal as a primary fuel source, then this protocol would bar the facilities from being shut down. This could mean that coal-based energy production is here to stay.

Takeaways

Although this series of Presidential Actions increases regulatory uncertainty regarding the future of energy production, the role of coal generation, and agency rulemaking, companies should continue to remain in compliance with all regulations and amendments currently in place pending the outcome of likely legal challenges to these Presidential Actions.

We will continue monitoring developments in this space. Please reach out to your Vinson & Elkins team to discuss these matters and their implications for your business.

¹ For more information, please refer to the following articles recently published by V&E:
Unleashing American Energy Signing Event: Executive Orders &
President Trump Targets State Laws That Burden Energy Production.

² “A Reliable Grid for an Electric Future,” NEMA’s Grid Reliability Study (January 2025) https://www.makeitelectric.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/grid-reliability-study-nema-deck.pdf.