ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL CALLS FOR DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY TO WITHDRAW PROPOSED SUNSET RULE

ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL CALLS FOR DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY TO WITHDRAW PROPOSED SUNSET RULE

July 02, 2026

Chicago - Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 14 attorneys general submitted comments opposing the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Sunset Rule, which would add one-or five-year termination dates to more than 500 DOE regulations and many future DOE rules.

In their letters to the DOE, Raoul and the attorneys general explain this proposal could create regulatory instability for businesses and states by making hundreds of regulations covering numerous different issues ineffective. In the letters, the coalition urges the DOE to withdraw the proposal because of its failure to provide an explanation for selecting these regulations or the effect of sunsetting them, which violates legal requirements.

"The Department of Energy proposal to sunset hundreds of Department of Energy regulations is arbitrary and illegal," Raoul said. "States like Illinois deserve an explanation of the agency's reasons for this proposal in order to meaningfully comment on the issues and, if necessary, ensure we can respond accordingly through state policy."

Following the Trump administration's Executive Order 14270, "Zero-Based Regulation to Unleash American Energy," the DOE proposed to add conditional sunset dates into the regulations contained in 28 separate parts of the Code of Federal Regulations. Unless the DOE later acts to extend the regulations, this proposal will automatically terminate over 500 substantive regulations that relate to significant matters such as access to nuclear devices, funding for foundational scientific research, and nuclear waste disposal.

Joining Raoul in sending the letters were the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.