In one of the many Executive Orders issued by President Trump on January 20, 2025was Executive Order 14151, dated January 20, 2025, titled “Unleashing America Energy” (“EO 14154”). This Executive Order directs the removal of impediments imposed on the development and use of our Nation’s abundant energy and natural resources by the Biden’s administration’s burdensome regulations.
On February 3, 2025, his very first day as Secretary of the Interior, Secretary Doug Burgum issued Department of the Interior Order No. 3418 (“DOI Order”). Secretary Burgum directed all Assistant Secretaries to review all agency actions and submit an action plan to the Secretary in 15 days from the Effective Date of the DOI Order (that is, by Tuesday, February 18, 2025) to consider how to comply with the policies in Section 3 of the DOI Order and to include in such action plan “steps that, as appropriate, will be taken to suspend, revise, or rescind”—among numerous other enumerated documents—the 2024 Financial Assurance Final Rule. The DOI Order was made effective immediately and will remain in effect until it is amended, superseded, or revoked, or the action plans referenced in Section 4 of the DOI Order are submitted, whichever occurs first.
In light of EO 14154 and DOI Order, as well as guidance from sources in the Risk Management Operations Section, various lessees have taken a “wait and see” approach subject to the implementation of all aspects of the DOI Order. Reading between the lines and the spirit of the statements and proposed policies in EO 14154 and DOI Order, some lessees have viewed those actions to serve as an unofficial “pause” of the Financial Assurance Final Rule.