Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis

The order directs all federal agencies to immediately review regulations and actions issued between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021, that conflict with the administration's environmental and climate goals, and to consider suspending, revising, or rescinding them. It revokes the Keystone XL pipeline's presidential permit, effective immediately. It places a moratorium on oil and gas leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reinstates — by invoking the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act — a prior withdrawal of offshore Arctic waters and the Bering Sea from oil and gas drilling. It revokes seven named executive orders on energy infrastructure and environmental review, and suspends a 2020 bulk-power security order for 90 days. It establishes an Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases to produce interim and final monetary estimates agencies must use in cost-benefit analyses. It also directs the Secretary of the Interior to review whether the boundaries of Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monuments should be restored to their pre-2017 size.

The order does not itself rescind any regulation — changes to specific rules require future notice-and-comment rulemaking. Most agency review actions are conditioned on being "appropriate and consistent with applicable law."

All federal executive agencies, particularly EPA, Interior, Energy, and Transportation. The energy sector — including oil and gas companies operating in the Arctic, offshore, and pipeline industries — is directly affected. Automakers, appliance manufacturers, and building-efficiency standard stakeholders face potential rule revisions. States, Tribal governments, and communities near monument lands are implicated in the monument review.

The immediate Keystone XL revocation halts a major cross-border oil pipeline project. The reinstatement of offshore Arctic drilling bans removes large areas from energy leasing. The regulatory review could unwind numerous environment and energy rules, affecting emissions limits, fuel economy standards, and appliance efficiency requirements across multiple industries.

Several directives take effect immediately — the Keystone XL permit revocation, Arctic offshore withdrawal reinstatement, and prior EO revocations. The broader regulatory review unfolds in stages: agencies report preliminary review lists to OMB within 30 days and comprehensive lists within 90 days, with actual rule changes requiring notice-and-comment rulemaking. The Social Cost Working Group publishes interim figures within 30 days for immediate agency use, then final figures by January 2022. The Attorney General may notify courts of pending litigation affected by any of these actions and seek stays. The monument review feeds a 60-day report to the President, who must then act separately.