If you pick through Donald Trump’s parade of executive orders upon taking office on January 20, you’ll discover many that revoke orders made by Joe Biden. But in one, Trump dug even further back: He revoked an executive order issued by Jimmy Carter in 1977, nearly half a century ago.

Carter’s order gave the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), a branch of the White House, the authority to issue binding regulations governing how federal agencies must comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Trump, by revoking it, takes away that power from the CEQ.

This may seem rather technical, but Trump in effect set off a process that could lead to very meaningful changes in the way the federal government handles environmental reviews for everything from oil pipelines to solar farms to highways to light rail systems to national parks.

NEPA is a law that governs federal agencies, telling them how and when to review the environmental impacts of federal projects. It is enforced, however, through private action: Individuals, companies, environmental groups, and so on can sue federal agencies for failing to conduct sufficient NEPA review, and courts can and do demand more review in response, delaying or killing the underlying project under review.

To the law’s advocates, this provides a powerful method for conservationists and average citizens to fight back against polluting projects near them; the Natural Resources Defense Council calls NEPA the “environmental Magna Carta,” citing cases where it’s protected communities from water-contaminating drilling projects, or blocked oil pipelines that enable greenhouse emissions.

To critics, including business groups generally skeptical of regulation but also many renewable energy developers whose projects are often subject to NEPA, the law causes pointless delays to beneficial projects, including ones necessary to building the clean energy needed for rapid decarbonization, and must be reformed if the US is to tackle climate change seriously.

Trump, of course, does not care about climate change. He made that much clear when he paired his NEPA order with an executive order blocking all offshore wind turbines and any onshore turbines built with public funds or on public lands, and his Department of Interior followed it up a few days later with an order suspending permits for all renewable energy projects, including solar in addition to wind. Trump’s skepticism toward NEPA reflects the much older skepticism that business and extractive industries have always had toward the law. But given the new anti-NEPA turn among some climate advocates, it’s worth asking what exactly his changes will mean for the buildout of solar and other renewables.

It’s too early to say for sure, but some people in the pro-renewables, anti-NEPA camp are hopeful. “I think it’s probably the right move if you want to move really fast and deploy clean energy resources or any kind of energy resources,” Eli Dourado,........

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