Executive Order 13783: Economic Growth

What the Executive Order Says

Executive Order (EO) 13783 is entitled "Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth".  This EO was originally issued on March 28th, 2017 and has 8 sections.  However it is in fact rather long in comparison to some other EO's that have been issued and at the time it was indeed rather controversial partly because it actually changed things.  We'll have a look why as we go through it.

Section 1

This section defines the policy and has 5 subsections.  The third subsection directs all executive departments and agencies to immediately review existing regulations that potentially burden production and use of energy resources.  The fourth subsection directs the executive branch to only make regulations when it is clear that it is a federal executive responsibility.  Clearly, there is an assumption here that some rules currently in place should have been State responsibilities or that the rule tries to legislate and is not supported by the underlying legislation.  Finally in the last subsection, this says that environmental regulations need to ensure that there is a net benefit (although it is not mentioned to whom!) and that regulations should be based on science and economics.  There are assumptions hidden in this which are criticisms of the prior administration: the rules protecting the environment were too conservative is considering the effects of human activity and that the science used to justify the rules was bad.

Section 2

This section details the implementation of the review directed in 1(c).  Within 45 days, every agency has to have a plan to conduct the review and complete it within 180 days.  A draft report with recommendations is to be issued, followed by a final version.  Then the Director of the OMB will be responsible to have the approved recommendations acted on.  No doubt this will result in a lot of Rulemaking notices in the Federal Register.

Section 3

This section revokes a number of previous presidential and other documents and then requests the departments to take action to further rescind or modify rules that had been created based on these documents.  Here are the items that have been revoked or rescinded:

• Executive Order 13653
• Presidential memo of June 25, 2013
• Presidential memo of November 3, 2015
• Presidential memo of September 21, 2016
• The President's Climate Action Plan of June 2013
• Climate Action Plan Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions of March 2014
• Final guidance for Federal Departments and Agencies on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas emissions and the Effects of Climate Change in National Environmental Policy Act Reviews.(See 81 FR 51866)

Section 4

This section directs that agencies should also review anything related to the "Clean Power Plan".  The intent is that where this is deemed to burden energy producers or consumers, the rules should be revoked.  Also, this asks the Department of Justice to back off on any currently pending prosecutions of companies who are in violation of the rules in the Clean Power Plan.  This clearly shows that this administration does not believe that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law.

Section 5

This section revokes a number of guidance documents that defined what was a good way to estimate the long-term social costs of Carbon, Nitrous Oxide and Methane emissions.  Also it disbands the group that had written these documents.  Essentially, I think there are no rules now and therefore the long-terms social costs of Carbon, Nitrous Oxide and Methane emissions do not matter in the opinion of the current administration.

Section 6

This section directs the Secretary of the Interior to lift the moratorium on coal mining on federal lands.

Section 7

This section lists a number of rules related to oil drilling and exploration that are to be reviewed by the Secretary of the Interior and to have the Department of Justice back down on current prosecutions related to these rules.

Section 8

This section includes the necessary legal fine print to assure the constitutionality of the EO.

My Commentary

There is a term that has been used in many cases: "The deconstruction of the administrative state".  The thought process here is that the government is too prescriptive in laws, policy and regulation and mandating how people live in a way that is intrusive to privacy, religious beliefs and other rights and freedoms originating from the constitution.  It is very much the embodiment of Republican party positions.  This EO was crafted and written very much in that spirit.
But the real problem is people, inventive greedy people with a weak moral compass.  People who find an opportunity to make a buck because of the ignorance, trust or gullibility of others.  This applies doubly so in corporate settings and on the internet because often in these settings the person who is the mark is some anonymous person who will never find be able to track back to you the action you might be taking today that adversely affects them.  The bad actors are emboldened simply because it seems like there are more levels of indirection and that violations will be very hard to detect.  Will this be the legacy of the current administration, that they emboldened bad actors?
There has been a lot of news recently about the effects of this EO in the coal industry which was a specific target of campaign promises.  So far, there have been a few expansions, but also there have been a some additional closures of coal mines.  Many commentators and reporters have challenged the notion that the only reason that the coal industry and the number of mining jobs has declined in the past 20 years is due to increased environmental regulations.  There are other things that have had an affect.  It seems that this EO may slow the loss of jobs, but it certainly will not bring the jobs back and there will be a cost to the environment because of the EO.