Author: Clara Conry
Editor: Sonya Doubledee
When Trump claimed he would end birthright citizenship, implement 25% tariffs on China and Canada, and end the war in Ukraine on the first day he was in office, many thought he was bluffing. When he signed over 20 executive orders (EOs) on “day one,” cries that he was a “threat to democracy” began immediately. While his attempt at ending birthright citizenship has already been blocked by the courts and public pressure forced him to lower his tariff rate, he did follow through on his promise to “Drill, Drill, Drill.”
This promise can be seen primarily in two different executive orders. The first declares a “National Energy Emergency,” and the second is meant to “Unleash American Energy.” These two EOs promise significant changes in America’s de-carbonization process and emphasize oil production, liquefied natural gas, and other non-renewable energy forms.
Declaring a National Energy Emergency
“Declaring a National Energy Emergency” requires using an often critiqued executive power to rapidly de-regulate energy permitting infrastructure because “hostile state and non-state foreign actors have targeted our domestic energy infrastructure, weaponized our reliance on foreign energy, and abused their ability to cause dramatic swings within international commodity.”
National emergencies allow the executive to invoke military or monetary powers without congressional approval, bypassing traditional checks and balances for a limited time to ensure the nation can respond quickly when emergencies arise. However, this system of emergency powers has controversial effects on the balance of power. The executive can take Americans’ assets, pause the prohibition on chemical and biological human subject tests, or start military conflicts without congressional approval. These powers were used to justify the illegal use of waterboarding techniques in Guantanamo Bay, as well as the military strikes against Libya and ISIS during the Obama Administration.
Trump embodies a significant problem with this system: presidents can declare emergencies with targeted workarounds to Congressional disagreement. During his first term, Trump redistributed funds for the border wall through an executive order, after Congress refused to pass a bill to fund it. This power eliminates one of the primary checks on executive authority: the power of the purse. Trump’s first term was ripe with suits over legality, but most never made it to the Supreme Court. After the transfer of office, Biden overturned the most controversial ones.
This January, Trump introduced a slew of EOs that stretched the bounds of executive authority to their limit. Not only has Trump re-implemented his “Emergency at the Southern Border” and weaponized it as justification for his new tariffs. He also declared a National Energy Emergency.
The purpose section of the executive order does not have evidence to back up its claims about the “harmful and shortsighted policies of the previous administration.” The emergency is justified for three reasons: energy security (the US’s ability to reduce its dependence on other countries’ energy), energy consistency (whether the grid is intermittent or reliable), and inflated energy prices.
The declaration will speed up the process of environmental deregulation. It authorizes the heads of every executive agency to “exercise any lawful emergency authorities available to them” to facilitate the leasing, siting, and generation of “domestic energy resources.” Additionally, it allows the EPA to supply “Emergency Fuel Waivers” for year-round gasoline production. These waivers are meant to be distributed solely during hurricanes or natural disasters to ensure an adequate fuel supply for emergency vehicles.
The order has two mandates targeted at the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act. It requires the Army Corps of Engineers to the “fullest extent possible” use the “emergency Army Corps permitting provisions” to streamline permits for oil and natural gas. Additionally, it requires more permits submitted for exemption from the ESA and CWA to be approved and reviewed.
Notably, this legislation only applies to “crude oil, natural gas, lease condensates, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal heat, the kinetic movement of flowing water, and critical minerals.” The streamlining process excludes wind and solar energy, renewables with the largest percent of the US’s energy share.
Not only will streamlined permitting multiply US dependence on non-renewable fossil fuel sources, it will approve hundreds of permits that run through critical biological ecosystems. Some projects marked as “emergencies” include the Enbridge Line 5 oil pipeline and pipelines running through fragile wetlands in Louisiana and Texas.
Unleashing American Energy
This aggressive ideology towards oil and gas risks rising sea levels, worsening heat waves, an intensifying need for climate migration, and tipping the world across irreversible tipping points.
The executive order “Unleashing American Energy” undoes dozens of executive orders from the previous administration related to energy, climate change, and the construction of scientific discovery boards. It forces agencies to repeal their internal rules that limit new pipelines and mention climate change. Finally, it abolishes the Electric Vehicle “mandate” and forces agencies to roll back any policy that helps EVs become cost-competitive.
This executive order requires an “Immediate Review of All Agency Actions that Potentially Burden the Development of Domestic Energy Resources.” This vague instruction will require every federal agency to spend hours reviewing every guidance document, regulation, and consent order for anything that can be construed as hindering oil production. The executive order contains no instructions on what counts as “burdening development,” meaning this purge could eliminate everything from environmental health protections to permitting guidelines for oil fields.
Trump rolled back everything from “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis” to “Establishment of the Climate Change Support Office.” Aside from this, he paused all funding being distributed through the IRA. These changes will have rippling effects across federal offices, from gutting federal climate change research to ending programs on climate change mitigation. Additionally, he abolished Biden’s “American Climate Corps,” a program that trains young people in climate and conservation jobs.
The executive order creates new standards for Environmental Analysis that it “shall not use methodologies that are arbitrary or ideologically motivated.” While it’s not clear exactly what counts as ideologically motivated methodologies, the administration has made clear in other executive orders what kind of thinking is not allowed. For example, Trump has said Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion measures, students reading books about gay or trans youth, and that science that proves climate change exists are all biased by ideology. In addition, he repealed reports from the US “Greenhouse Gas Monitoring and Measurement Interagency Working Group” and ended Biden’s board to calculate the Social Cost of Carbon.
To keep the world on the 1.5-degree pathway, the US would need to reduce its emissions by 43% by 2030. The trajectory that Trump has set will have us not only put that goal at risk but begs the question of whether we can keep the world under 2.0 degrees at all. This aggressive ideology towards oil and gas risks rising sea levels, worsening heat waves, an intensifying need for climate migration, and tipping the world across irreversible tipping points.
Emory Environmental Report 
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