Walking away from treaties. Redrawing the boundaries of national monuments. Repealing pollution regulations.

As Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman reported, when Donald Trump returns to the White House next month, he is expected to unleash a series of executive actions and other moves that will radically overhaul America’s approach to energy, the environment and climate.

Some of the moves have been well telegraphed. Trump intends to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, as he did during his first term. He is also likely to open up lands in the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments to drilling and mining. And he is planning to repeal parts of the Inflation Reduction Act that benefit electric vehicles.

Other potentially disruptive moves have been floated but not formalized. Trump is likely to hollow out the Environmental Protection Agency, possibly moving its headquarters out of Washington. The incoming administration is also expected to end the Biden administration’s pause on issuing permits for new liquefied natural gas export terminals.

Trump is able to make all of these changes because, in a government designed to have checks and balances, modern-day presidents have an unusual amount of autonomy to shape climate and energy policy.

This is partly because it’s been nearly 35 years since Congress has passed a substantial, comprehensive environmental law. While the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden in 2022, was the largest-ever federal law aimed at addressing climate change, it did not set any emissions standards or define a national strategy for addressing climate change.