Executive Order 14261 explained · Executive Order · No disposition noted
Reinvigorating America's Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241
Signed: 2025-04-08 Published: 2025-04-14 Federal Register document: 2025-06380
Agencies: Executive Office of the President
Federal Register notes (as of 2026-10-19): Amends: EO 14241, March 20, 2025 See: EO 14386, February 11, 2026
What Executive Order 14261 says
Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 70 (Monday, April 14, 2025) [Federal Register Volume 90, Number 70 (Monday, April 14, 2025)] [Presidential Documents] [Pages 15517-15520] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2025-06380] Presidential Documents Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 70 / Monday, April 14, 2025 / Presidential Documents [[Page 15517]] Executive Order 14261 of April 8, 2025 Reinvigorating America's Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241 By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. In order to secure America's economic prosperity and national security, lower the cost of living, and provide for increases in electrical demand from emerging technologies, we must increase domestic energy production, including coal. Coal is abundant and cost effective, and can be used in any weather condition. Moreover, the industry has historically employed hundreds of thousands of Americans. America's coal resources are vast, with a current estimated value in the trillions of dollars, and are more than capable of substantially contributing to American energy independence with excess to export to support allies and our economic competitiveness. Our Nation's beautiful clean coal resources will be critical...
Opening of the official text; read it in full in the Federal Register.
Constitution Index
“VFA Constitution grade”
Constitutionally sound
Graded 2026-10-08
SI-generated grade · five published checks · not individually reviewed by a person · methodology
Executive Order 14261 is an internal executive-branch management and Federal-lands order grounded in Article II and Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2, directing review and expedition of existing statutory programs. It imposes no mandate, prohibition, surveillance, or taking on private persons and expressly acts consistent with applicable law, so all five checks pass.
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✓ Passes · Enumerated powers
The order operates within executive authority over Federal administration and property. Article II, Section 1 vests executive power in the President and Article II, Section 3 requires faithful execution of the laws, implemented here through direction to subordinate agencies under statutes including the Mineral Leasing Act. Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 gives Congress, executed by the President, … -
✓ Passes · Bill of Rights
No provision directs censorship of speech, press, assembly, or petition under the First Amendment, disarmament under the Second Amendment, searches or seizures under the Fourth Amendment, compelled testimony under the Fifth Amendment, or unfair trials or punishments under the Sixth through Eighth Amendments. The order addresses coal leasing, agency guidance review, and export promotion, with all o… -
✓ Passes · Individual sovereignty
The order restricts no private conduct concerning person, property, speech, labor, or belief. It compels no individual to mine, buy, sell, or use coal, and prohibits no private choice. References to electricity demand from emerging technologies and artificial intelligence data processing are stated justifications for increasing supply, not mandates on individuals. The burden test is satisfied beca… -
✓ Passes · Decentralization
The operative subject is management of Federal lands, Federal mineral leasing, Federal agency guidance, and foreign commerce promotion, which by definition cannot be handled by an individual, county, or single state. Directing Interior and Agriculture to prioritize leasing under existing statutes and directing Commerce and State to promote exports does not move traditionally local decisions upward… -
✓ Passes · Due process and takings
The order grants no adjudicatory power, creates no penalty or forfeiture, and orders no seizure or condemnation of private property. Expediting leases on public lands, reviewing guidance, and terminating a prior moratorium environmental review do not deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without notice and hearing under the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause, and no private property is …
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