Inside Trump’s first strikes at Biden’s climate legacy

Good morning and welcome back to Energy Source, coming to you from New York.

The US Federal Reserve held interest rates steady yesterday, defying Donald Trump’s calls for deep reductions. The Fed’s pause on cuts is a setback for the renewable energy industry, which has struggled from high upfront costs and faces an uncertain future amid the US president’s tariffs threats and restrictions to solar and wind development.

Today’s Energy Source takes a first look at Trump’s efforts to unpick Joe Biden’s climate and clean energy legacy during his first week in office. We spent days reading through his barrage of executive orders and consulting with lawyers about the legal basis behind his rescissions. Email me if there’s something we missed at: amanda.chu@ft.com.

Thanks for reading,

Amanda

What Trump’s first executive orders mean for US energy and climate

On his first day back in office, US President Donald Trump signed a blizzard of executive orders, bolstering the country’s fossil fuel sector and launching his first strikes at Joe Biden’s climate and industrial legacy.

An FT analysis released this morning found the new president has taken more than 70 actions to undo federal commitments, initiatives, and targets aimed at combating climate change, limiting oil and gas development, and spurring the renewable energy buildout.

We spent days combing through Trump’s first week of executive orders related to energy and climate, as well as the dozens of executive orders and presidential memorandums he rescinded, which date back as early as 1977.

Here is a breakdown of what we found — plus a complete list of Trump’s rollbacks.

Easing restrictions on oil and gas

Trump’s first executive orders declared a “national energy emergency”, committed the federal government to “unleashing” fossil fuel production, and reversed Biden-era restrictions on the oil and gas sector.

The most significant actions include ending the following: a ban on new offshore drilling, freezing new permits for liquefied natural gas terminals and a moratorium on leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Trump also reversed Biden’s decision to withdraw the permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Trump’s easing of restrictions will support oil and gas production in the longer term, but the short term impacts will probably be muted as producers confront a bearish market and investor demands for returns.

Climate activists said the moves delivered on the wishes of the fossil fuel executives who helped fund his campaign and undermine US efforts to tackle global warming.

“Oil bosses have worked hand-in-glove with their friends in politics to bake dirty fossil fuels into our energy systems,” said Alice Harrison, head of fossil fuels campaigning at Global Witness, adding this was happening when parts of Los Angeles had been razed to the ground by wildfires made worse by climate change.

Uprooting domestic climate frameworks

When Biden took office, he promised to put climate change at the centre of his presidency, committing the US to new decarbonisation targets and establishing offices across federal agencies focused on the issue.

Many of these signature efforts were eliminated overnight by Trump, including targets to achieve a 100 per cent clean electricity sector by 2035 and make half of all US car sales electric by the end of the decade. Trump also terminated Biden directives to federal agencies to protect public health and the environment, prioritise climate change in foreign policy, and address climate-related financial risk.

The executive architecture established in the Biden administration to address climate change has also been dismantled, including the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, the National Climate Task Force, and councils to address environmental justice. Justice40, a Biden initiative to direct 40 per cent of green funds to disadvantaged communities, and the Civilian Climate Corps, another signature jobs programme, are gone.

For the clean energy industry, Trump’s pauses on renewables development on federal land and new leases for offshore wind have created uncertainty for investors. “Even a delay of necessary permits can be disastrous for a project,” said Lauren Collins, a partner at Vinson & Elkins.

A global retreat

Trump’s first week in office marked the latest in the US retreat from international efforts to address climate change. In his executive order, “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements”, the president pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement for the second time, as well as other commitments made under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which oversees the international climate negotiations.

Financial commitments abroad have also been challenged. Trump called for the immediate cessation of financial commitments the US made under the UNFCCC and ended the US International Climate Finance Plan, a Biden initiative that multiplied the country’s commitments to developing countries on climate mitigation and adaptation.

A test of congressional authority

Trump’s executive overhaul highlights the legal fragility of Biden’s climate legacy, which rested heavily on executive orders because of a deeply divided Congress.

While it’s not unusual for a new president to rescind executive orders from a prior administration, lawyers warned some of Trump’s actions will probably run into legal challenges and pushback from Congress. Most at risk is his pause on disbursements of hundreds of billions of dollars in green funds appropriated by Congress from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, signature pillars of Biden’s industrial agenda. Trump has already eliminated White House offices to co-ordinate the implementation of these laws at federal agencies.

“He’s making it very difficult to implement, and he’s trying to shut down the effectiveness of the programme,” said Camille Pannu, a professor at Columbia Law School.

The limits of executive authority have protected the primary driver of investment in clean energy: tax credits. Whether Republicans in Congress will follow Trump’s attacks on Biden’s industrial policies will be seen in the budget reconciliation process, where the Republicans will be eager to slash spending to finance tax cuts.

Republican-controlled districts have overwhelmingly benefited from clean energy investment following the IRA, putting congressional Republicans in a tough spot.

Harrison Fields, Trump’s principal deputy press secretary, said the president won a “decisive mandate” from the American people and is “fully committed to investing in the priorities that voters overwhelmingly supported”. (Amanda Chu)

Job moves

• Alex Fitzsimmons, former head of government affairs at Sila Nanotechnologies, has been appointed chief of staff for Department of Energy secretary nominee Chris Wright.

• Patrick Johnson joins White & Case as a partner in its energy practice in Houston.

• Thyssenkrupp Nucera has named Klaus Ohlig as chief technology officer of the green hydrogen group, succeeding Fulvio Federico.

• Sustainable Development Capital, an investment firm, has appointed Andrew Symons as managing director of capital formation and investor relations. Symons joins from General Atlantic.

• Corey Cantor has left consultancy BloombergNEF and joined the Zero Emission Transportation Association, a federal coalition, as research director.

• Johnny Dossey, vice-president of marketing at Diamondback Energy, has joined start-up Verde Clean Fuels’ board of directors following a deal.

Power Points

Energy Source is written and edited by Jamie Smyth, Myles McCormick, Amanda Chu, Tom Wilson and Malcolm Moore, with support from the FT’s global team of reporters. Reach us at energy.source@ft.com and follow us on X at @FTEnergy. Catch up on past editions of the newsletter here.