Union Pacific Train transports coal through the Spanish Fork Canyon in Utah County, Utah. Wednesday, July 31st, 2024. President Donald Trump signed an order on April 8, 2025, aimed at promoting coal production. (Photo by Spencer Heap/Utah News Dispatch)

President Donald Trump signed on Tuesday to issue an alarm among climate advocates about national-level renewable energy initiatives.

However, experts and state policy groups said constitutional protections will blunt the impact the order has on state operations.

orderone of fourTrump signed on Tuesday With the aim of revitalizing the coal industry, we direct the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and block the enforcement of state laws restricting the production of fossil fuels. It specifically covers state and local policies, including climate change, environmental justice and carbon emission reductions.

Orders by attempting to strip a state of his authority to enact and enforce the law;violation Environmental law experts said they are likely to be hit in basic constitutional principles and courtrooms.

Brad Campbell, president of the New England-based environmental advocacy group, Protecting Law Foundation, said in an interview with the state newsroom that the order did not cite federal law or the interest the administration is trying to protect.

“It’s more of a political theatre than a law,” Campbell said. “It completely ignores the understanding of federalism that has existed for centuries and the language of the constitution itself.”

The order itself may not bear legal surveillance, but it indicates that the administration may demand climate policies that it must follow because it risks losing federal cash, supporters said.

Trump officials have shown enthusiasm in the first few months that they are using federal funds as leverage with states, universities and other institutions outside the federal control.

In a statement, White House spokesman Taylor Rogers said Wednesday that the order would protect states that envisage the power to regulate international issues such as climate change.

“The president is right to assure that Americans in both red and blue states are not seen to state that they are suppressing American energy that is inconsistent or contradictory to federal law,” she said.

Climate action with Trump’s agenda: “Can’t be reconciliated”

The order includes a lengthy preamble that seeks to justify federal involvement in state and local policy decisions, but also notes that state policies focusing on emissions reduction and climate protection are at odds with Trump’s goals.

“These state laws and policies seek to determine interstate and international disputes over air, water and natural resources. They discriminate excessively against out-of-state businesses. They violate state equality and impose voluntary excess fines without justification.”

“These state laws and policies are essentially inconsistent with my administration’s purpose of unleashing American energy. They shouldn’t put up with it.”

During a signature ceremony and a three-person ceremony on coal production on Tuesday, White House secretary Wilsharf told the president that states promoting renewable energy sources are a major part of the decline in the coal industry.

“One of the biggest issues we have in this area is to have Democrat states, radical left-wing states, policies, create coal discrimination agendas and do it against safe energy sources,” Scharf said.

However, the order will little change the market and technological forces that have led to the decline of the coal industry, said Eric Schlenker Goodrich, executive director of the Environmental Group’s Western Environmental Law Centre.

“I don’t know how order does anything, but it creates chaos and uncertainty in communities that are now away from coal,” he said.

“In many ways, we’re cheating on those communities by giving them the false hope that somehow coal mines and coal-fired power plants will either be resurrected from the sudden deaths or pushed far beyond their economic and technical life.”

The state is not suppressed

Environmental lawyers and climate advocates said the order would not change the constitutional structure of the U.S. government, which empowers states to set their own laws.

Casey Catimus, executive director of the US Climate Union, a coalition of 24 governors seeking to prioritize state-centric climate policy, said members of the group will not be moved by the order.

“The reality is that states continue to enjoy broad, independent constitutional authority to advance solutions to meet the needs of communities, businesses and workers,” Katims said in an interview Wednesday. “The president cannot change the constitution through Fiat.”

The group’s co-chairs, New Mexico Governor Michel Lejean Grisham and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, said in a statement Tuesday that the administration has no power to block national powers and that the coalition will be restrained by the order.

“The federal government cannot unilaterally strip the states of independent constitutional authorities,” they said. “We are a nation of nations, a law, and we are not blocked.”

If the Justice Department sues under Attorney General Pam Bondy to suspend enforcement of state law, the court is likely to strengthen the state’s well-understood powers, Campbell said.

Even the U.S. Supreme Court, a conservative supermajority, including three members appointed by Trump, has honored even the most controversial actions of his second presidency, but Campbell predicted that he will move to curb that federal power.

“The notion that the president can stop enforcement of state laws that are not in line with his political program will be too much excess even for this very Trump-friendly Supreme Court majority,” he said.

He further said that even Republican governors who have traditionally advocated for an increase in state rights to the federal government may oppose administrative invasions of national policy decisions. Allowing action under the order would set a precedent for future Democrats to interfere with Republican states, he said.

Federal funding

The lack of legal authority to directly block the enforcement of state law may not prevent the Trump administration from using power in other ways. That is to withhold federal funds from non-cooperative countries.

The order directs an administration that was bold in asserting its authority to deny funds allocated to Congress, and could target states more than climate policy, Schlenker Goodrich said.

“Do they have a legal basis? It’s not,” he said. “Can they use political weapons against states that are stepping into climate action, especially compared to fundraising? That’s a great possibility. That’s the direction they see the White House go.”