[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 15, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 15643-15646]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-06466]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 71 / Tuesday, April 15, 2025 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 15643]]
Executive Order 14270 of April 9, 2025
Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting To Unleash
American Energy
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. In our country, laws are supposed
to provide the certainty and order necessary to foster
liberty and innovation. Instead, our vast regulatory
structure often serves to constrict ordered liberty,
not promote it. The United States Code itself is more
than 60,000 pages. But unelected agency officials write
most of the complex, legally binding rules on top of
that, often stretching these statutory provisions
beyond what the Congress enacted.
In particular, the previous administration added more
pages to the Federal Register than any other in
history, with the result that the Code of Federal
Regulations now approaches a staggering 200,000 pages.
These regulations linger in such volume that serious
reexamination seldom occurs.
This regime of governance-by-regulator has imposed
particularly severe costs on energy production, where
innovation is critical. The net result is an energy
landscape perpetually trapped in the 1970s. By
rescinding outdated regulations that serve as a drag on
progress, we can stimulate innovation and deliver
prosperity to everyday Americans.
This order directs certain agencies to incorporate a
sunset provision into their regulations governing
energy production to the extent permitted by law, thus
compelling those agencies to reexamine their
regulations periodically to ensure that those rules
serve the public good.
Sec. 2. Definitions. For the purposes of this order:
(a) ``Conditional Sunset Date'' means the date a
regulation will cease to be effective and be removed
from the Code of Federal Regulations, if the agency
does not extend the Sunset Date pursuant to section
4(d) of this order.
(b) ``Covered Agency'' means one of the agencies
listed in section 3(a) of this order.
(c) ``Covered Regulation'' means a regulation
issued in whole or in part pursuant to a statutory
authority listed in sections 3(b)-(j) of this order.
(d) ``DOGE Team Lead'' means the leader of the DOGE
Team at each agency as described in Executive Order
14158.
(e) ``Regulation'' means each part, subpart, or
individual provision of the Code of Federal Regulations
promulgated under an agency rule as defined in 5 U.S.C.
551(4).
Sec. 3. Covered Agencies and Regulations. (a) This
order applies to the following agencies and their
subcomponents: the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA); the Department of Energy (DoE); the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC); and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC). It further applies to the
following agency subcomponents: the Office of Surface
Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM), the Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management (BOEM), the Bureau of Safety and
Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), and the United States
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), all within the
Department of the Interior;
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and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (ACE),
within the United States Army.
(b) For the DoE, this order applies to all
regulations issued pursuant to the following statutes
and any amendments thereto:
(i) the Atomic Energy Act of 1954;
(ii) the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987;
(iii) the Energy Policy Act of 1992;
(iv) the Energy Policy Act of 2005; and
(v) the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
(c) For FERC, this order applies to all regulations
issued pursuant to the following statutes and any
amendments thereto:
(i) the Federal Power Act of 1935;
(ii) the Natural Gas Act of 1938; and
(iii) the Powerplant and Industrial Fuel Use Act of 1978.
(d) For the NRC, this order applies to all
regulations issued pursuant to the following statutes
and any amendments thereto:
(i) the Atomic Energy Act of 1954;
(ii) the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974; and
(iii) the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982.
(e) For the OSMRE, this order applies to all
regulations issued pursuant to the Surface Mining
Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and any amendments
thereto.
(f) For the BLM, this order applies to all
regulations issued pursuant to the following statutes
and any amendments thereto:
(i) the Mining Act of 1872;
(ii) the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976; and
(iii) the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
(g) For the BOEM, this order applies to all
regulations issued pursuant to the following statutes
and any amendments thereto:
(i) the Outer Continental Shelf Act of 1953; and
(ii) the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
(h) For the BSEE, this order applies to all
regulations issued pursuant to the Outer Continental
Shelf Act of 1953 and any amendments thereto.
(i) For the FWS, this order applies to all
regulations issued pursuant to the following statutes
and any amendments thereto:
(i) the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act;
(ii) the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918;
(iii) the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act of 1934;
(iv) the Anadromous Fish Conservation Act of 1965;
(v) the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972;
(vi) the Endangered Species Act of 1973;
(vii) the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976;
and
(viii) the Coastal Barrier Resources Act of 1982.
(j) For the EPA and ACE, within 30 days of the date
of this order, the Administrator of the EPA and
Secretary of the Army shall provide to the President,
through the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB Director), a list of statutes vesting EPA
and ACE with regulatory authority that shall be subject
to this order.
Sec. 4. Zero-Based Regulating. (a) To the extent
consistent with applicable law, each of the Covered
Agencies shall issue a sunset rule, effective not
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later than September 30, 2025, that inserts a
Conditional Sunset Date into each of their Covered
Regulations.
(b) The sunset rule shall provide that each Covered
Regulation in effect on the date of this order shall
have a Conditional Sunset Date of 1 year after the
effective date of the sunset rule, subject to the
process set forth in subsection (d) of this section.
Unless the extension condition specified in subsection
(d) of this section is satisfied, agencies will treat
Covered Regulations as ceasing to be effective on that
date for all purposes. An agency shall not take any
action to enforce such an ineffective regulation and,
to the maximum extent permitted by law, shall remove it
from the Code of Federal Regulations.
(c) In any new Covered Regulation, to the maximum
extent consistent with law, the relevant Covered Agency
shall include a Conditional Sunset Date that is not
more than 5 years in the future. Amendments to any
Covered Regulation shall provide that they do not reset
that regulation's Conditional Sunset Date and shall be
subject to the same Conditional Sunset Date as the
amended regulation. The OMB Director may exempt a new
regulation or amendment from the requirements of this
paragraph if he determines that the new regulation or
amendment has a net deregulatory effect.
(d) The sunset provision added to existing and new
Covered Regulations shall provide that the agency will
offer the public an opportunity to comment on the costs
and benefits of each regulation, such as through a
request for information, prior to a rule's expiration,
and following such opportunity the Conditional Sunset
Date for that Covered Regulation may be extended if the
agency finds an extension is warranted. A request for
information shall not automatically extend the
Conditional Sunset Date. A Covered Agency may extend
the Conditional Sunset Date for a particular Covered
Regulation as many times as is appropriate, but never
to a date more than 5 years in the future.
Sec. 5. Implementation. (a) Neither a determination to
extend the Conditional Sunset Date of a particular
regulation, nor a regulation that expires as a result
this order, shall count towards the ten-for-one
regulatory requirement in Executive Order 14192 of
January 31, 2025 (Unleashing Prosperity Through
Deregulation).
(b) Agency heads shall coordinate with their DOGE
Team Leads and the Office of Management and Budget to
implement this order.
(c) This order shall not apply to regulatory
permitting regimes authorized by statute.
Sec. 6. Severability. If any provision of this order,
or the application of any provision to any agency,
person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the
remainder of this order and the application of its
provisions to any other agencies, persons or
circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the OMB Director relating to budgetary,
administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
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(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 9, 2025.
[FR Doc. 2025-06466
Filed 4-14-25; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P