Energy, environment and natural resources

Executive Order 14270: Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting To Unleash American Energy

President: Donald J. Trump

Directed specified energy and environmental agencies to add conditional sunset dates to covered regulations and periodically review whether to renew them.

Status: In effect.

Is Executive Order 14270 still in effect? Yes. Active; sunset-date and regulatory review program.

Paper stacks and energy facilities sit on either side of a balance displaying zero beneath a policy document.
A symbolic regulatory-budgeting review; zero does not mean zero agency spending, automatic repeal or the expiration of every energy rule. EO Explained · site-generated editorial illustration · not documentary evidence.

What does Executive Order 14270 do?

Named agencies were told to propose sunset frameworks and reassess covered rules periodically through lawful rulemaking.

Later primary evidence reviewed September 24, 2026: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission published a sunset-rule action in response to this order's zero-based regulatory-budgeting direction. Official source. The cited steps do not establish every downstream effect.

Administration position: The order’s evaluative language and policy rationale are administration positions. This guide distinguishes them from official acts, reports and judgments.

Reading the operative provisions of Executive Order 14270

EO 14270 directs several energy and environmental agencies to review regulations and consider conditional sunset dates for covered rules. Under this approach, a rule would periodically need renewed justification rather than continuing indefinitely without review. The order targets regulatory costs and energy development, but it does not automatically erase the existing regulations when signed. Its assignments appear in the Federal Register text of EO 14270.

Any sunset framework must account for statutes that require an agency to maintain a standard or perform a recurring duty. An executive order cannot end a statutory program or remove a regulation Congress requires. Agencies also need to follow the Administrative Procedure Act when changing rules, including notice and a reasoned explanation where required. A periodic review can identify rules for revision, but a review date is not an automatic expiration if the agency lacks authority to let the rule lapse.

The practical effect depends on which rules agencies cover, how the review is conducted and whether a final action follows. Agencies should identify the rule, statutory basis, estimated benefits and costs, and consequences of allowing it to expire. A zero-based review may change regulatory priorities, but it can also create uncertainty for businesses and states if standards are not renewed on time. To assess implementation, look for agency plans, proposed rules and final notices; EO 14270 itself sets the review direction rather than determining the fate of each energy rule.

SignedApril 9, 2025
Lead officialsEPA, Energy, Interior, FERC and NRC
Express timingSunset rulemaking within 30 days

Before and after

Before the order

Covered regulations remained effective until amended or rescinded under their governing statutes.

After the order

Agencies were directed to establish review mechanisms, but no rule expires solely because the executive order says so; valid agency action is required.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission published a sunset-rule action in response to this order's zero-based regulatory-budgeting direction.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
Covered agenciesIssue sunset framework rules30 days
Covered agenciesReview and renew or end covered rulesAt least every five years

What happened next

EO 14270 signed.

Later primary evidence reviewed: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission published a sunset-rule action in response to this order's zero-based regulatory-budgeting direction.