On April 8th, President Trump signed three executive orders intending to boost the domestic coal industry. These new EOs also raise questions about federal preemption of state and county policy.
As the Trump Administration implements its vision for the United States, counties can continue to expect significant shifts in federal policy. One of the most significant has been a refocusing on fossil fuels instead of renewable energy. When the Trump Administration took office, one of its first actions was to sign the “Unleashing American Energy” executive order (EO) in January 2025. This new EO directed the executive branch to realign incentives and prioritize the development of oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical minerals, and nuclear energy resources.
Building on this, the administration recently issued three additional EOs aimed at boosting the nation’s coal industry. Of particular importance for counties, the “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach” order targets not only state authority but also explicitly targets county siting and regulatory authority as well.
From the Executive Order, (with emphasis added)
Section 1. Purpose. . . . American energy dominance is threatened when State and local governments seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authorities. . . when States subject energy producers to arbitrary or excessive fines through retroactive penalties or seek to control energy development, siting, or production activities on Federal land, American energy suffers. . . .
Section 2. State Laws and Causes of Action. (a) The Attorney General, in consultation with the heads of appropriate executive departments and agencies, shall identify all State and local laws, regulations, causes of action, policies, and practices (collectively, State laws) burdening the identification, development, siting, production, or use of domestic energy resources that are or may be unconstitutional, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable.
(b) The Attorney General shall expeditiously take all appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State laws and continuation of civil actions identified in subsection (a) of this section that the Attorney General determines to be illegal.
Debates about federalism and which level of government has what authority are nothing new. These questions date back to the drafting of the Constitution, and the tug of war between the branches and levels of government has a lengthy history. Key to county leaders, though, is that up to this point, the conversation around local authority over energy has been focused at the state level, with the Maryland General Assembly acting as the primary arbiter over points of legal and political contention.
This new federal executive order introduces a new element as questions arise over where federal preemption may supersede county or state authority, and what this could mean for Maryland’s energy policies. A key focus of the 2025 legislative session was settling questions about what authority counties had and did not have, as well as the confines of those limitations. Should the US Attorney General choose to target either the state of Maryland, Maryland’s counties, or both, the effect on Maryland’s energy landscape as well as local control could be dramatic.
The path forward for this Executive Order may, as others issued in the early phases of the President’s term, be subject to legal challenges.
Read the full Executive Order – Protecting American Energy from State Overreach