President Donald Trump on Wednesday directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies to add provisions to their energy-related regulations so they would expire within five years.
“By rescinding outdated regulations that serve as a drag on progress, we can stimulate innovation and deliver prosperity to everyday Americans,” Trump said in an executive order.
Trump ordered the sunset provisions to be in place by Sept. 30. For FERC, the directive covers all regulations under the Federal Power Act, the Natural Gas Act and the Power Plant and Industrial Fuel Use Act.
The U.S. Department of Energy must add sunset provisions to its regulations under the Atomic Energy Act; the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act; the Energy Policy Act of 1992; the Energy Policy Act of 2005; and the Energy Independence and Security Act, according to the executive order.
Other departments and agencies affected by Trump’s order are: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement; the Bureau of Land Management; the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Trump directed agency heads to coordinate with their so-called Department of Government Efficiency team leads and the Office of Management and Budget to implement the sunset order.
The sunset date for a covered regulation may be repeatedly extended if the agency finds an extension is warranted, according to the executive order.
Trump’s order does not apply to regulatory permitting regimes authorized by statute.
The executive order is “impossible to implement, blatantly illegal, creates massive amounts of unnecessary work, and just makes no sense,” Ari Peskoe, director of Harvard Law School’s Electricity Law Initiative, said in an email Thursday. “It is deeply misguided and reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of how agencies work.”
In another executive order, with a focus on recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Trump ordered federal departments and agencies to identify categories of unlawful and potentially unlawful regulations within 60 days and begin plans to repeal them.
Consumer watchdog group Public Citizen said it would challenge the executive order in court.
