First, the Trump administration moved to dismantle federal climate regulations. Now it has launched an assault on efforts at the state and local levels, where many leaders are still working to try to avoid the dangerous impacts of global warming.
President Trump outlined the move in an expansive executive order he signed on Tuesday directing the Justice Department to block all “burdensome and ideologically motivated ‘climate change’ or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security.”
The directive appears aimed at laws in places like Michigan, Colorado and Minnesota, where legislatures have required that all electricity should come from wind, solar and other carbon-free sources. It attacks policies in California, Washington State and Northeastern states that charge companies for the carbon dioxide pollution they emit into the atmosphere. And it specifically assails laws in New York and Vermont that seek to hold fossil fuel companies financially responsible for damage caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas.
“These State laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration’s objective to unleash American energy,” Mr. Trump said in the order, adding, “They should not stand.”
Several state attorneys general called Mr. Trump’s order “lawless” and said they were prepared to fight any federal effort to intrude on local laws.
“We don’t want Washington, D.C., telling us we can’t govern the way we see fit,” said Philip J. Weiser, the Democratic attorney general of Colorado, a state that limits the amount of methane that oil and gas companies can emit and is trying to gradually replace fossil fuels with wind, solar and other renewables as a source of electricity.
“This is going up against the entirety of our constitutional history and the ability of states to make responsible public policies,” Mr. Weiser said, adding, “We are not going to capitulate.”
Mr. Trump’s executive order was both broad and vague, leaving it unclear precisely what the Justice Department would target. But the Federal Highway Administration has already attacked New York’s congestion pricing plan, and the Transportation Department has ordered a review of funding grants for bike lanes across the country. The administration is also working to stop California’s plan to ban the sales of new gas-powered cars in that state by 2035.
Several legal experts said Mr. Trump’s executive order was essentially a news release with no legal authority. “Presidents do not have the power to unilaterally annul state laws,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.
But the Justice Department is likely to throw its support behind industries or groups that are challenging state climate laws. The administration could also threaten to withhold federal funds from states that pursue policies it disfavors.
And all of that is most likely designed to have a chilling effect on states that hope to counter Mr. Trump’s fossil fuel policies, Mr. Gerrard said. “It sends a strong political message,” he added. “It’s an all-out assault on climate action at all levels of government.”
Climate change, a phrase Trump administration officials often put in quotes to connote skepticism, is a scientifically established fact. Carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil fuels have heated the planet. The average global temperature increased by about 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2024, compared with preindustrial levels, making it the hottest year on record. That has led to more frequent and more intense heat waves, wildfires, flooding, drought and sea level rise and more severe storms.
Scientists have warned that if temperatures continue to rise past the 1.5-degree level, the likelihood of increasingly deadly disasters becomes unavoidable. Governments, including the United States under the Biden administration, have concluded that they must drastically reduce emissions if the world is to avert the most catastrophic impacts.
Mr. Trump, however, has disparaged climate action and has directed agencies to repeal every federal regulation aimed at curbing emissions. What’s more, he wants to encourage more production and burning of oil, gas and coal.
During his first term, when Mr. Trump attempted to roll back more than 100 environmental rules and regulations, state and local government efforts to cut greenhouse gases acted as a bulwark.
Today there are hundreds of state and local laws addressing climate change across the country. Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Illinois are among 25 states that have renewable and clean energy standards for electricity, while 20 states have set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their economies, according to the U.S. Climate Alliance, a group of 24 governors.
Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey and Nevada are among 15 states with their own tailpipe emissions limits, and many of them have also formally adopted a plan that originated in California to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. Together, they make up nearly half of the U.S. auto market. New Mexico has led the way on reducing methane from oil and gas wells and landfills, and it and 13 other states now have laws or regulations to curb that potent greenhouse gas.
Among the most contentious state laws are so-called climate superfund laws that seek to force oil, gas and coal companies to pay for the costs from wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events that scientists say are made worse by the burning of fossil fuels.
Lawmakers in New York and Vermont have passed climate superfund laws. California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Connecticut are now considering similar legislation.
“I think one of the reasons you see him going after states is that they are the final line of defense,” said Gina McCarthy, who served as the White House national climate adviser during the Biden administration.
Executives from nearly two dozen oil and gas companies recently raised their concerns about the climate superfund laws at a meeting with Mr. Trump at the White House. On Wednesday, they said they were pleased he was taking action.
“We welcome President Trump’s action to hold states like New York and California accountable for pursuing unconstitutional efforts that illegally penalize U.S. oil and natural gas producers for delivering the energy American consumers rely on every day,” Ryan Meyers, the senior vice president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement.
He said Mr. Trump’s directions to the Justice Department “will help restore the rule of law and ensure activist-driven campaigns do not stand in the way of ensuring the nation has access to an affordable and reliable energy supply.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Democrats who lead the U.S. Climate Alliance, issued a joint statement saying, “The federal government cannot unilaterally strip states’ independent constitutional authority.”
They added, “We are a nation of states — and laws — and we will not be deterred.”
