The Trump administration moved quickly to dismantle federal climate regulations and is also taking efforts to stop the enforcement of climate state laws, calling them unconstitutional, unenforceable and preempted by federal laws. But the states are fighting back. “We don’t want Washington, D.C., telling us we can’t govern the way we see fit,” said Philip J. Weizer, the Democratic attorney general of Colorado.
“This is going up against the entirety of our constitutional history and the ability of states to make responsible public policies,” Weiser said. He added: “We are not going to capitulate.”
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, the two Democrats who chair the U.S. Climate Alliance representing 24 states concur. “The federal government cannot unilaterally strip states of independent constitutional authority,” they stated. “We are a nation of states — and laws — and we will not be deterred. We will keep advancing solutions to the climate crisis that safeguard America’s fundamental right to clean air and water, create good paying jobs, grow the clean energy economy, and make our future healthier and safer.”
Many legal experts see President Trump’s vague executive order as toothless and without legal authority. “Presidents do not have the power to unilaterally annul state laws,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, recently in the New York Times.
Unfortunately, the order will force states into expensive litigation and legal uncertainty, explained Alex Brown of Stateline, adding that it’s unclear whether the order will have a chilling effect on state efforts to craft more climate legislation. Gerrard agreed that it is intended to be chilling: “It’s an all-out assault on climate action at all levels of the government.”
As reported by Lisa Friedman in the Times article, there are hundreds of state and local laws addressing climate change. Some 25 states have renewable and clean energy standards for electricity and 20 have goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their economies. Fifteen states, including New Mexico, have their own tailpipe emission limits and many also have adopted a plan originated in California to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. New Mexico has led the way in reducing emissions from methane. Other states like New York and Vermont have passed Climate Superfund laws. California has operated a cap-and-trade system since 2012. The states will not easily be deterred. As noted by Adam Aton and Leslie Clark in a recent Politico article, California alone is the largest player in the climate litigation landscape. California Attorney General Rob Bonta recently said that the state “remains committed to using the full force of law and the tools of this office to address the climate crisis head on and protect public health and welfare.”
Gerrard of Columbia stated that Trump’s efforts are likely to have little effect with the judiciary, noting that it would be up to the state court judges who are hearing the climate lawsuits to decide whether to allow federal intervention and then to agree or not with the White House’s arguments. Of course, it is unclear what retaliatory actions the federal government may take against those states that do not support their policies.
And this executive order is just one of many executive orders targeting the environment and climate change. A new sweeping emergency order will allow more logging in our national forests and eliminate protections on federal land in New Mexico and Nevada to boost production of minerals. That includes eliminating protections in the Upper Pecos watershed that the Biden administration added to ban mining.
The Trump administration also is attempting to stop the development of wind energy by stopping approvals, permits and loans for all wind energy projects both on and offshore. Ten percent of our energy comes from wind, which is our largest source of renewable energy. A coalition of states recently filed a lawsuit to block the implementation of this order. “This arbitrary and unnecessary directive threatens the loss of thousands of good paying jobs and billions in investment and is delaying our transition away from fossil fuels that harm our health and our planet,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James who is leading the coalition. And then there’s the Trump administration’s freeze on all solar grants across the United States, impacting some 60 programs including those in New Mexico.
It is an all-out assault, and the states must fight back.
Published on June 14, 2025, in the Albuquerque Journal.
© Judith Polich. All Rights Reserved. May be republished with author’s written consent and proper attribution.