By LISA FRIEDMAN NYTimes News Service
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First, the Trump administration moved to dismantle federal climate regulations. Now it has launched an assault on efforts at the state and local levels, where many leaders are still working to try to avoid the dangerous impacts of global warming.

President Donald Trump outlined the move in an expansive executive order he signed on Tuesday directing the Justice Department to block all “burdensome and ideologically motivated ‘climate change’ or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security.”

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The directive appears aimed at laws in places like Michigan, Colorado and Minnesota, where legislatures have required that all electricity should come from wind, solar and other carbon-free sources. It attacks policies in California, Washington state and Northeastern states that charge companies for the carbon dioxide pollution they emit into the atmosphere. And it specifically assails laws in New York and Vermont that seek to hold fossil fuel companies financially responsible for damage caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas.

“These State laws and policies are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration’s objective to unleash American energy,” Trump said in the order, adding, “They should not stand.”

Several state attorneys general called Trump’s order “lawless” and said they were prepared to fight any federal effort to intrude on local laws.

“We don’t want Washington, D.C., telling us we can’t govern the way we see fit,” said Philip J. Weiser, the Democratic attorney general of Colorado, a state that limits the amount of methane that oil and gas companies can emit and is trying to gradually replace fossil fuels with wind, solar and other renewables as a source of electricity.

“This is going up against the entirety of our constitutional history and the ability of states to make responsible public policies,” Weiser said, adding, “We are not going to capitulate.”

Trump’s executive order was both broad and vague, leaving it unclear precisely what the Justice Department would target. But the Federal Highway Administration has already attacked New York’s congestion pricing plan, and the Transportation Department has ordered a review of funding grants for bike lanes across the country. The administration is also working to stop California’s plan to ban the sales of new gas-powered cars in that state by 2035.

Several legal experts said Trump’s executive order was essentially a news release with no legal authority. “Presidents do not have the power to unilaterally annul state laws,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

But the Justice Department is likely to throw its support behind industries or groups that are challenging state climate laws. The administration could also threaten to withhold federal funds from states that pursue policies it disfavors.

And all of that is most likely designed to have a chilling effect on states that hope to counter Trump’s fossil fuel policies, Gerrard said. “It sends a strong political message,” he added. “It’s an all-out assault on climate action at all levels of government.”

Climate change, a phrase Trump administration officials often put in quotes to connote skepticism, is a scientifically established fact. Carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil fuels have heated the planet. The average global temperature increased by about 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2024, compared with preindustrial levels, making it the hottest year on record. That has led to more frequent and more intense heat waves, wildfires, flooding, drought and sea level rise and more severe storms.

Scientists have warned that if temperatures continue to rise past the 1.5-degree level, the likelihood of increasingly deadly disasters becomes unavoidable. Governments, including the United States under the Biden administration, have concluded that they must drastically reduce emissions if the world is to avert the most catastrophic impacts.

Trump, however, has disparaged climate action and has directed agencies to repeal every federal regulation aimed at curbing emissions. What’s more, he wants to encourage more production and burning of oil, gas and coal.