Policy Backgrounders

Regulation: Early Actions of the Administration

January 22, 2025

On Monday, the President issued not only a freeze on regulation but also a sweeping package of environmental and energy-related Executive Orders aimed at boosting domestic production of fossil fuels. They seek to loosen environmental restrictions on power plants, revoke goals set forth by the Biden Administration to boost electric vehicle sales, and order the US to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, among other initiatives.

• On Inauguration Day, the President on Monday issued a regulatory freeze ordering all Executive Departments and agencies not to propose or issue any rule in any manner until it  can be reviewed by a Department or agency head appointed or designated by the Administration.
• The Executive Order on Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements withdraws the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change. During his first term, Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 agreement arguing that the international climate accord imposed unfair burdens on the US. The US had rejoined the Agreement in 2021.
• The Executive Order on Unleashing American Energy rescinds a number of the Biden Administration’s Executive Orders and other actions on energy and the environment, including eliminating the “electric vehicle (EV) mandate,” and implements actions to terminate policies related to the Green New Deal from Biden-era laws.
• As part of the new Administration’s effort to raise US energy output, the President issued an order for the US to resume processing export permit applications for new liquified natural gas (LNG) projects, effectively reversing a pause on permits for new projects put in place by President Biden early last year.
• The President also issued an Executive Order on Monday Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization citing the Organization’s demand of “onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries’ assessed payments” as well as its “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.”