Congressional Republicans, alongside President Donald Trump, have pulled off a regulatory wrecking ball in 2025, smashing a record-breaking 22 Biden administration rules with the stroke of a pen.

In a historic push, GOP lawmakers leveraged the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to rescind these regulations, targeting everything from fossil fuel restrictions to electric vehicle mandates and financial caps, marking the largest rollback since the CRA’s inception in 1996.

Historic Rollback Targets Energy and Industry

Small business owners, already squeezed by tight margins, can breathe easier as Republicans in spring 2025 overturned Biden-era energy efficiency standards on commercial appliances like walk-in coolers and freezers, which threatened to saddle them with crippling expenses.

The GOP also axed a Department of Energy rule that would have banned certain gas water heaters by 2029, a move that critics argued would limit consumer options and hike costs for everyday households.

In May 2025, Congress struck down a Biden waiver allowing California and other states to phase out gas-powered car sales by 2035, a policy that could have rippled into job losses nationwide.

California Mandates Face Fierce Opposition

“These job losses will not be confined to California, but they will be spread all across the nation,” warned Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., in a Senate floor speech before the vote to nix the California EV mandate.

Capito’s point hits hard—why should factory workers in Michigan or truckers in Texas pay the price for a progressive experiment in one state?

Also in May, Trump signed off on resolutions scrapping two California vehicle emissions rules mandating zero-emission heavy-duty trucks, effectively halting a backdoor ban on diesel engines.

Coal and Energy Production Fight Back

Moving to October 2025, GOP lawmakers repealed a Biden rule curbing coal leasing on millions of acres in the Powder River Basin across Montana and Wyoming, a region vital to over 40% of U.S. coal output.

Just a month later, in November, Congress overturned another restrictive coal leasing plan on Wyoming public lands, further loosening the chokehold on an industry critical to energy security.

In December 2025, Trump finalized the rollback by signing resolutions to undo Biden rules limiting oil and gas leasing on 13 million acres in Alaska’s Central Yukon and curbing production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain.

Alaska’s Economic Future at Stake

“When we unlock Alaska, we are strengthening America’s national security and economic posture in this generation and for generations to come,” declared Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, in a statement to the DCNF in December 2025.

Begich’s words aren’t just rhetoric—Alaska’s congressional delegation and tribal communities have long argued these restrictions devastate local economies reliant on energy for schools, healthcare, and basic infrastructure.

From overdraft fee caps to energy mandates, these rollbacks signal a broader rejection of what many see as an overreaching progressive agenda, though critics of the Biden rules must ensure the pendulum doesn’t swing too far and leave necessary protections behind.