On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14154, "Unleashing American Energy," as one of his first official acts. The order was the centerpiece of a trio of Day One energy directives -- alongside E.O. 14153 ("Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential") and E.O. 14156 ("Declaring a National Energy Emergency") -- that collectively represented the most aggressive fossil fuel expansion agenda in modern presidential history.
The order's key provisions included: directing the Secretary of Energy to immediately restart reviews of LNG export permit applications, ending the Biden administration's January 2024 pause on approvals for exports to non-free trade agreement countries; promoting oil, gas, coal, and mineral exploration and production on federal lands and the Outer Continental Shelf; directing Interior and Agriculture secretaries to revise or rescind agency actions imposing "undue burdens" on domestic mining; eliminating mandates favoring electric vehicles; and supporting approval of offshore deepwater LNG port projects in the Gulf of Mexico.
The companion Alaska order (E.O. 14153) specifically prioritized permitting for the $44 billion Alaska LNG Project, expected to export up to 20 million metric tons of LNG annually by 2031, and directed expedited pipeline and export infrastructure approvals. The Energy Emergency declaration (E.O. 14156) invoked emergency powers to bypass normal regulatory review processes, directing agencies to issue emergency waivers to circumvent environmental bottlenecks and expedite permitting on federal land.
The three orders together set in motion a cascade of fossil fuel expansion actions that would unfold over the following year: DOE resumed LNG export approvals within 24 hours; by September 2025, five major LNG export facilities had received permits; the Interior Department launched a new OCS leasing program covering 1.27 billion acres; and Congress codified many provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The orders were drafted in close coordination with fossil fuel industry executives who had donated tens of millions to Trump's inaugural fund, with the policy wishlist reading as a near-verbatim transcription of American Petroleum Institute priorities. The Day One energy agenda demonstrated how campaign donations and inauguration access translated directly into executive policy -- regulatory capture executed in real time, on camera, within hours of the oath of office.