The Trump administration this week intensified its efforts to undermine nationwide climate progress with a sweeping executive order aimed at restricting states’ abilities to set their own environmental policies, specifically targeting key components of California’s initiatives against climate change.
In an order dated April 8, the president directed Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to identify and “stop the enforcement of” state laws that address climate change and other environmental initiatives.
“Many States have enacted, or are in the process of enacting, burdensome and ideologically motivated ‘climate change’ or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security,” the president wrote in the executive order.
“These State laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration’s objective to unleash American energy,” he continued. “They should not stand.”
The assertion of federal power over states’ rights seems contradictory to some of Trump’s other positions—such as his campaign pledge to prioritize state rights in issues like abortion.
The order specifically calls out several states, including New York and Vermont, accusing them of “extorting” fossil-fuel companies for their past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.
The order also takes aim at California’s cap-and-trade program, a pioneering initiative that sets limits on companies’ greenhouse gas emissions and allows them to sell unused emissions “credits” to other companies.
“California, for example, punishes carbon use by adopting impossible caps on the amount of carbon businesses may use, all but forcing businesses to pay large sums to ‘trade’ carbon credits to meet California’s radical requirements,” the president wrote.
The executive order continues a recent trend of anti-environmental actions by the Trump administration, including cuts to grant funding, closures and layoffs in the climate research community, loosened regulations, and renewed efforts to boost oil and coal production—both of which significantly contribute to global warming.
The order also heightens Trump’s ongoing conflict with California.
In recent months, the president has specifically targeted the Democratic stronghold, even threatening to withhold disaster aid for the state’s wildfire response and recovery, citing issues like forest management and water policies.
“There’s a little bit of beef right now between Trump and the state,” said Maggie Coulter, a senior attorney with the Climate Law Institute at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity.
“I think wanting to call out California was part of why cap and trade got mentioned.”
Cap-and-trade isn’t the only California program that could be affected by the federal government’s actions.
The order instructs Bondi to seek out and prioritize state laws that address climate change, environmental justice, greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon taxes—essentially creating a list of initiatives that the oil-and-gas industry opposes.
This means that California’s ability to enforce strict tailpipe emission standards and its plans to transition to electric vehicles, including a state law banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, could be at risk.
The Trump administration has already taken legal actions to block that law, resulting in ongoing court battles.
Additionally, the executive order threatens California’s Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025, a bill currently progressing through the state legislature requiring fossil fuel companies to pay for damage caused by their greenhouse gas emissions—similar to the legislation in New York and Vermont that Trump highlighted.
Blocking those laws would effectively grant immunity to the fossil-fuel industry from potential damages, likened to protections that currently shield firearms manufacturers from various civil lawsuits, according to Cassidy DiPaola, communications director with Make Polluters Pay, a campaign focused on climate accountability.
“President Trump’s executive order weaponizes the Justice Department against states like California that want to make polluters pay for climate damage,” DiPaola stated. “This is the fossil-fuel industry’s desperation on full display—they’re so afraid of facing evidence of their deception in court that they’ve convinced the President to launch a federal assault on state sovereignty.”
In fact, the oil and gas industry welcomed the order, coinciding with the president’s directive to immediately expand coal production across the country, including opening federal lands to coal leasing and prolonging the operational lifespan of existing coal plants.
“We welcome President Trump’s action to hold states like New York and California accountable for pursuing unconstitutional efforts that illegally penalize U.S. oil and natural gas producers for delivering the energy American consumers rely on every day,” remarked Ryan Meyers, senior vice president with the American Petroleum Institute.
California appears ready to push back against the federal administration.
In a statement, Gov. Gavin Newsom described Trump’s order as a “glorified press release.”
“This is the world the Trump Administration wants your kids to live in,” said Newsom.
“California’s efforts to cut harmful pollution won’t be derailed by a glorified press release masquerading as an executive order.”
The governor’s office noted that California has made significant progress in clean energy, including a 1,600% increase in battery storage since 2019 and achieving 100% clean electricity for the equivalent of 45 days last year.
Greenhouse gas emissions in the state have decreased by 20% since 2000.
The Trump administration asserts that its series of environmental rollbacks is aimed at reducing regulatory costs, lowering taxes, and enhancing the production of an “affordable and reliable domestic energy supply.”
“Simply put, Americans are better off when the United States is energy dominant,” the executive order states.
The order gives Bondi 60 days to compile a list of applicable state climate laws and submit a report to the president regarding actions taken, alongside recommendations for additional legislative measures needed to curtail state law enforcement.
Coulter from the Climate Law Institute remarked that actually preventing states from enforcing their laws would constitute an illegal and unconstitutional overreach.
“It’s not really something that Trump or the attorney general can do,” said Coulter.
“If you want to stop the enforcement of state law, you have to go to court, and that’s the jurisdiction of the court.”
Should the administration attempt to impede states from enforcing their laws, Coulter predicts that lawsuits and legal challenges are highly likely.
image source from：https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-04-09/trump-state-climate-laws-california
