Soon after assuming office as U.S. president, Donald Trump issued a raft of executive orders seeking to reverse his predecessor’s climate and energy agenda. One order directed federal agencies to immediately pause the disbursement of funds through the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which proposed spending millions of dollars to promote clean energy.

He directed revoking the ‘Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022’ and any offices established therein. Terminating the ‘Green New Deal,’ Trump’s order said all agencies would immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the IRA or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including but not limited to funds for electric vehicle charging stations.

However, the impact of executive orders on clean energy development is unlikely to be significant. According to the White House, contracts for 84% of all IRA funds have already been signed between federal agencies and clean energy companies.

More importantly, it is unlikely that the freeze on disbursements will impact IRA tax credits since they are protected by statute and cannot be eliminated by executive orders. Moreover, the tax credits have bipartisan support, and Congress would have to approve any rollback.

The previous Biden administration had described the IRA as the single largest and most ambitious investment in the U.S.’s ability to advance clean energy, cut consumer energy costs, confront the climate crisis, promote environmental justice, and strengthen energy security.

Trump’s executive order pausing spending directs agencies to review grants, loans, and other payments associated with the IRA. According to the American Clean Power Association, the clean energy industry in the U.S. has received investments of over $150 billion since 2022.

Trump also ordered a halt to offshore wind energy leasing and permitting. “This withdrawal shall go into effect beginning on January 21, 2025, and shall remain in effect until this Presidential Memorandum is revoked,” the order said. “This withdrawal does not apply to leasing related to any other purposes such as, but not limited to, oil, gas, minerals, and environmental conservation.”

U.S. to Withdraw from Paris Accord

In other executive orders, Trump directed the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. This is not the first time that Trump has withdrawn from the agreement. He announced a withdrawal during his first term in office in 2017. Biden, however, rescinded the order in 2021. The agreement, signed by over 190 countries, seeks to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.

Trump’s executive order has directed the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to formally write to the Secretary-General about the withdrawal from any agreement or financial commitment made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Energy Emergency

Trump also declared a national energy emergency to protect the U.S. from an inadequate energy supply and infrastructure that resulted in high energy prices. In his inauguration speech, he invoked the ‘drill baby, drill’ rhetoric from his election campaign. The orders that followed the speech attempt to unburden the oil and gas industry from tough emission regulations.

He directed all the relevant agencies to conduct an immediate review of actions that potentially burden the development of domestic energy resources, with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources.

Electric Vehicles

Trump also revoked the “electric vehicle (EV) mandate” to promote true consumer choice by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for vehicle choices and terminating state emissions waivers that limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles.

The order seeks to eliminate “unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived’ government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies and effectively mandate their purchase by individuals, private businesses, and government entities alike by rendering other types of vehicles unaffordable.

Biden had signed a mandate for 50% of all new vehicles to be electric vehicles by 2030.