National Energy Emergency (SO 3417). Implementing provisions of EO 14156, this SO directs all bureaus and offices within the Department of the Interior (DOI) to identify emergency authorities (and other legal authorities) within 15 days that will (a) “facilitate the identification, permitting, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, distribution, exporting, and generation of domestic energy resources and critical minerals including, but not limited to, on Federal lands and the Outer Continental Shelf”; and (b) “expedite the completion of all authorized and appropriate infrastructure, energy, environmental, and natural resources projects within their jurisdiction to perform or to advance, including use of all authorities to facilitate the supplying, refining, transporting, and exporting of energy including, but not limited to, in and through the West Coast of the United States, the Northeast of the United States, and Alaska.” While SO 3417 is presumed to focus on oil and gas, it is worded in a manner that is not exclusive of renewable energy sources.
Unleashing American Energy (SO 3418). This SO implements EO 14154 and directs DOI’s assistant secretaries to, among other things, present an action plan to “suspend, revise, or rescind” a list of Biden-era regulations, secretarial orders, Solicitor’s Office M-Opinions, and other regulatory documents. These include, most notably, the 2024-2029 Five-Year Plan for offshore oil and gas leasing, as well as M-Opinions interpreting offshore renewable energy provisions of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and confirming the Migratory Bird Treaty Act’s (MBTA) inclusion of incidental take. These are documents that the Biden administration issued to reverse documents from the first Trump administration, and we anticipate that they could revert back to something resembling the original versions. For example, the scope of the MBTA has been debated between the past several administrations, and this move signals that the Trump administration may only apply the MBTA take prohibition to intentional takes.
The SO also directed that the action plan include steps to increase oil and gas leasing on public lands (including the reinstatement of canceled leases), revise critical habitat designations, assess DOI’s implementation of the National Historic Preservation Act, reduce burdens on mining, identify the locations of deposits of critical minerals, and ensure that “rules, guidance, and policies relating to the development of energy resources on Federal land do not bias government or private-sector decision making in favor of renewable energy projects as compared to oil, gas, or other mineral resource projects.”
Finally, the SO directs the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget to reassess “processes, policies, and programs for issuing grants, loans, contracts, or any other financial disbursements of all appropriated funds” from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which included (among other things) several years of enhanced appropriations for permitting environmental reviews.