Trump hits undo on Biden AI order, EV mandate, emissions standards, and more
US President Donald Trump has wasted no time in culling Biden-era programs, including the elimination of the prior administration’s executive orders on AI safety and electric vehicles, and freezing funds for EV infrastructure.
Trump revoked nearly 80 Biden EOs in his first day in office, including EO 14037, the EV mandate, and EO 14110, which established AI safety standards that, among other things, required companies building foundation models able to perform multiple different tasks to report said development to the US government.
Biden’s AI EO also included requirements that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) develop safety standards for AI that would test systems for their potential to be used in creation of weapons of mass destruction, or as tools for the creation of disinformation. The EO further placed requirements on the military and intelligence communities for safe and ethical use of AI, and called for action to address potential civil rights violations that could be caused by AI, such as discrimination, lack of access to healthcare, and housing bias.
All those protections have been struck from federal law, as expected. The Republican Party’s 2024 platform pledged to do just that, calling the AI EO “dangerous,” and claiming it hindered innovation in the space by imposing “Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology.”
The President hasn’t put anything substantial forward to protect Americans from harmful domestic AI production so far, with the Republican platform only saying that the party supports “AI Development rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.”
Trump’s EO flurry didn’t touch recently enacted export controls on AI chips or a last-minute Biden EO that opened federal land to datacenter projects.
Shares in producers of AI hardware, including Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom, are all up at the time of writing.
Green New Deal DOA
With the canning of EO 14037, Trump not only scrapped the US’s goal of transitioning half of passenger vehicles on American roads into zero-emissions vehicles (including battery electric, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell vehicles) by 2030, but eliminated a number of planned vehicle standards as well.
The Biden EO included provisions for the Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency to establish new emissions, fuel economy, and fuel efficiency standards for passenger and heavy-duty vehicles, all of which are now eliminated as well. None of the standards were in effect yet, with the earliest planned for Model Year 2027 vehicles, so it’s not clear whether the automotive industry will need to pivot that much in response.
Under European Union regulations, all new cars and vans registered in the member states must be zero emission from 2035. However, the European motor industry has been calling for a reopening of the 2035 car CO2 law, with carmakers in the Industry for 2035 pressure group pushing to kill the combustion engine ban, signing an open letter to that effect in September last year.
While the zero emissions Biden EO has been eliminated, another executive order signed by Trump yesterday, titled Unleashing American Energy, has taken steps to terminate the so-called Green New Deal in its entirety.
The Trump EO orders all agencies to “immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA),” with a particular callout for funds reserved for electric vehicle infrastructure development.
Among other things the IRA and IIJA dedicated cash toward was funding of US national laboratories to help develop new energy technologies and help create a domestic supply chain for critical minerals and other green energy resources, which Trump called for in his Energy executive order.
It’s not clear how much of the work done using IRA and IIJA funds would be transferable to Trump’s attempt to restart domestic energy production development in his name instead of Biden’s. We contacted the White House to learn more about what elements of the two laws were being suspended, but didn’t immediately hear back.
Elsewhere in the US
Trump also signed several executive orders of his own on inauguration day that will definitely turn heads.
Along with commuting the sentences of a number of individuals put in prison over the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capital to stop certification of Joe Biden’s win over Trump in the 2020 election, Trump also pardoned everyone convicted of a crime related to the insurrection attempt and ordered the Attorney General to end all prosecutions and indictments of individuals yet to be convicted.
Trump also ordered that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America, as he claimed he wanted to do during the presidential campaign. The same executive order also calls for renaming Mount Denali, the highest peak in the United States, back to Mount McKinley, with a concession for the Alaskan natives who have called the mountain Denali for centuries to get some other landmarks named “to honor their history and culture.”
The President also changed the rules around birthright citizenship, paused refugee admissions (while also shutting down the CBP One app set up by the Biden administration to handle asylum requests and canceling all scheduled appointments made via the app), suspended foreign aid for 90 days pending a review, expanded the federal death penalty, halted leasing and permitting for wind energy projects and has frozen hiring across the government – with the exception of the military, national security, public safety, and immigration enforcement. AnotherEO adds that the US will be withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
Trump also declared another national emergency at the southern border and ordered the military to act domestically to secure it, which is likely to face legal challenges.
Buckle up – it’s going to be an interesting four years. ®