President-elect Donald Trump plans to undo many of the Biden administration’s climate policies, but it has created barriers in recent months to protect its legacy.
“I will sign Day One orders to end all Biden restrictions on energy production, terminate his insane electric vehicle mandate, cancel his natural gas export ban, reopen ANWR in Alaska — the biggest site, potentially anywhere in the world — and declare a national energy emergency,” Trump said in December during a rally in Phoenix.
However, the current administration has taken several actions to ensure the climate measures put in place under President Joe Biden would last throughout the next administration — or at least make them difficult to overturn.
For instance, on Monday, the White House announced an executive order banning new oil and gas drilling in some federal waters. The order will prohibit new drilling off the East Coast, California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as some areas in Alaska and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. It will hamstring Trump in his ambitions to boost U.S. oil production.
In his first term, Trump attempted to overturn similar federal water protections implemented by former President Barack Obama, but a federal judge ruled in 2019 that only Congress could revoke such a ban.
“I see it just came over that Biden has banned all oil and gas drilling across 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory. It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Larry Behrens, the communications director for the energy advocacy group Power The Future, said Biden used the law to “Trump-proof” the most recent decision on banning offshore drilling, adding that “it shows that he is trying to make it so that his failed legacy continues.”
In response to Biden’s order on offshore drilling, American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said, “American voters sent a clear message in support of domestic energy development, and yet the current administration is using its final days in office to cement a record of doing everything possible to restrict it.”
The drilling ban is just one of several actions Biden has taken in the eleventh hour of his administration to place roadblocks ahead of the incoming administration.
Earlier this week, Biden announced two new national monuments on tribal lands in California to limit energy development in the areas.
The administration also put out plans to withdraw nearly 264,000 acres of federal lands in the Nevada mountain range from oil, gas, and geothermal development for approximately 20 years.
The Energy Department has quickly approved many loans since the presidential election, as Trump has promised to rescind all unspent funds for clean energy projects under the Inflation Reduction Act. As of September, the loan department financed $43.9 billion for clean energy projects and fuel-efficient vehicle manufacturing facilities.
“The American people rejected this agenda pretty resoundingly at the ballot box in November,” said Behrens. He added, “Absolutely” Biden is creating a barrier for the Trump administration to achieve its agenda.
Sanjay Patnaik, director of the Center on Regulation and Markets at the Brookings Institution, said it is not uncommon for an administration to push out its own policies before leaving the White House, but the question remains how long Biden’s efforts will last once Trump is in office.
The Biden administration’s approach is to “try to throw out as much as you can and then see what sticks and slow down the process of reversing them,” he said.
“They talk about a transition, they’re always saying they want to have a smooth transition of party to party, of government. Well, they’re making it really difficult. They’re throwing everything they can in the way. They’re giving out trillions of dollars in nonsense, in Green New Deal crap, that isn’t worth a damn thing,” Trump told Hewitt.
The administration has also sought to transition the United States to clean energy and promote health by reducing pollution through regulations. The Treasury Department recently finalized guidance for the hydrogen tax credit, and the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a waste emissions charge to reduce methane. The EPA, according to its fall regulatory agenda, had 53 regulations in the final rule stage.
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Trump and congressional Republicans could seek to cancel late Biden rules through the Congressional Review Act, a tool that allows Congress to axe rules and regulations with only simple majorities in both chambers, bypassing the filibuster. Trump could also try to revise or rescind rules through the rulemaking process, but doing so can be difficult and time-consuming because of laws about administrative procedures.
Patnaik said this unpredictable regulatory landscape, with its “pendulum swing back and forth,” is unsuitable for business or the economy, as investors and companies need certainty.