President-elect Joe Biden will sign an executive order today to halt oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, rescind a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and tell agencies to consider tougher regulations on the energy sector.
The executive order will kick off a government-wide review of more than 60 energy-related rules and other actions that the incoming Biden administration says were harmful, not backed by science or contrary to the national interest. That review will apply to all of President Donald Trump's major regulatory rollbacks, including measures that relaxed offshore drilling safety standards, scrapped migratory bird protections and curtailed federal infrastructure reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act.
The executive order will take "critical first steps to address the climate crisis, create good union jobs and advance environmental justice," Biden's transition team said.
Biden will sign the order, along with a separate document allowing the US to rejoin the Paris climate accord, after he is sworn in at 12pm ET and delivers his inaugural address.
Biden's decision to sign the order on his first day in office will put energy and climate policy as a top-tier issue for his administration. It also shows that efforts by the oil industry groups to tout the jobs and the economic boosts of the $8bn Keystone XL crude pipeline failed to convince Biden to hold off on revoking the permit. Biden has instead tried to focus on the economic growth from transitioning the economy to renewable energy and improving the country's resilience to the effects of climate change.
The executive order does not include Biden's promise to "ban" all new oil and gas permitting on federal land and offshore areas. But it would suspend all leasing activities on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and instruct the US Interior Department to begin reviewing the boundaries of four national monuments that Trump shrank during his term.
The incoming administration yesterday got a major boost on its plans to set new greenhouse emission standards for power plants, when a federal appeals court threw out Trump's "ACE" rule that set weak rules for the sector. That will offer a pathway for Biden to try to craft a rule that can survive scrutiny at the US Supreme Court, which in 2016 halted enforcement of an earlier attempt at the rule when Biden was serving as US vice president.
The executive order does not provide any specifics on the plans to impose tougher vehicle fuel-economy rules or to reinstate methane emission limits from oil and gas facilities. But it would likely take at least a year for the Biden administration to complete those actions, given the complexity of the issues involved and requirements to subject regulations to public comment.
Biden's incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, separately also plans to sign a "regulatory freeze memo" today that will attempt to stop last-minute regulations from moving forward. Federal agencies will need to confer with the White House before renewing regulatory activity, according to a summary of the memo.
