During the week of April 7, 2025, the Trump administration issued a suite of new executive orders aimed at rescinding regulations, undermining state laws and regulations, and reviving the coal industry. These orders assert sweeping authority and rely on unprecedented legal arguments that are bound to face legal challenge.
This analysis examines how the these latest presidential directives reflect the Trump administration’s expansive view of executive authority, including: (1) aggressive deregulatory efforts that are premised on a contentious view of recent Supreme Court decisions and ignore the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), (2) threats to legally challenge state energy and environmental laws and policies that the administration views as unconstitutional or unlawful, and (3) attempts to support the domestic coal industry by exempting coal plants from public health regulations and by asserting a national energy emergency. As with other executive orders, these are only directives and will require further steps by federal agencies to implement them.
We briefly summarize each of the directives and explain what we will be watching as agencies take steps to implement them and as Congress, courts, states, and the private sector respond.
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