★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
Cite
Executive Order 11790 Amended ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 11790—Providing for the Effectuation of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974

•
Tuesday, June 25, 1974
•
5 min read (978 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 5 min read (978 words) • ● Amended
🎯 Primary Mandate

Pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 30 of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, notice is hereby given that that act shall be effective as of June 27, 1974.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Sovereign State Governments & Localities Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Private Citizens & Property Owners

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President Richard Nixon on June 25, 1974, this order concerns Providing for the Effectuation of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974. Pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 30 of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, notice is hereby given that that act shall be effective as of June 27, 1974. SEC. 2 (a) There is hereby delegated to the Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "Administrator"), all authority vested in the President by the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973.

Constitutional Assessment: Scrutinized through Article II, Section 2, this action exercises the President's constitutional role as Commander in Chief. Early Framers recognized broad executive discretion in commanding military forces during conflict, provided it remains bounded by congressional declarations and respects civilian domestic courts.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

▪

Pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 30 of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, notice is hereby given that that act shall be effective as of June 27, 1974.

▪

SEC. 2 (a) There is hereby delegated to the Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "Administrator"), all authority vested in the President by the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973.

▪

The Administrator shall submit to the Congress the reports required by section 4 (c) (2) of the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973.

▪

SEC. 3 (a) There is hereby delegated to the Administrator the authority vested in the President by section 203 (a) (3) of the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, as amended, to the extent such authority remains available under the provisions of section 218 of that act.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments 🏛️ Sovereign State Governments & Localities 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners
🏛️

The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight)
§

"When the President acts in absence of either a congressional grant or denial of authority, he can only rely upon his own independent powers, but there is a zone of twilight in which he and Congress may have concurrent authority."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"Power is of an encroaching nature, and it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." — Federalist No. 48 (1788)

Madison would view this order with watchful scrutiny. Operating in the 'Zone of Twilight' where Congress is silent, each such directive establishes an administrative precedent that steadily expands the executive perimeter at the expense of legislative primacy.

Madisonian Stance: Vigilant / Cautionary
AH

Alexander Hamilton

The Energetic Executive & Unified Command

"The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength must be under the direction of the single hand of the Executive." — Federalist No. 74 (1788)

Hamilton would forcefully champion executive discretion here. For foreign entanglements, commerce defense, and national security, deliberative assemblies are too slow and faction-ridden. A unified, energetic Executive exercising swift command is precisely what the Philadelphia Convention intended for national preservation.

Hamiltonian Stance: Strong Prerogative Support
GM

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The president will be surrounded by flatterers and sycophants... and the great powers of the executive will gradually absorb the liberties of the people." — Cato IV (Anti-Federalist, 1787)

The Anti-Federalist prism advises continuous democratic vigilance. Even routine administrative directives aggregate centralized federal power away from town halls and state assemblies toward a distant executive apparatus.

Anti-Federalist Stance: Eternal Vigilance Required
📐

Five Measurable "Constitutional Friction" Dimensions

An objective audit measuring potential separation-of-powers tension against the United States Constitution and established Supreme Court doctrine.

⚖️ Discretionary Twilight Zone
58 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

High Friction

Touches upon core congressional prerogatives: raises appropriations reallocation, tariff imposition, or statutory preemption questions.

Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.
Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Moderate Friction

Directs internal executive branch machinery, agency workflows, and federal personnel.

Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment

Federalism & State Sovereignty

High Friction

Creates friction with the Tenth Amendment by conditioning state grants, mandating local compliance, or preempting state police powers.

Benchmark: Police powers and un-delegated responsibilities reserved to the States.
Dimension 4 • 5th & 14th Amendments

Due Process & Individual Rights

Low Friction

Focuses on internal governmental operations with no direct impairment of private rights or property.

Benchmark: Protection of private property, contracts, liberty, and procedural justice.
Dimension 5 • Separation of Powers

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

Moderate Friction

The order relies on inherent Article II executive discretion, civil service management, or foreign diplomacy where Congress has neither expressly approved nor prohibited action.

Benchmark: Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates within Justice Jackson’s Zone of Twilight, resting upon concurrent presidential authority or congressional silence.

Weighted composite: Art. I (25%), Art. II (25%), Federalism (15%), Due Process (15%), Youngstown (20%).
ℹ️
How to read these dimensions: Executive power expands whenever an administration acts without explicit statutory authorization from Congress (Article I), touches upon police powers historically reserved to the states (Tenth Amendment), or limits private rights and property without judicial process. A low friction score indicates strict concordance with enacted law; a high friction score highlights orders testing the limits of presidential discretion.
Total Words
978
5,953 characters
Estimated Read Time
5 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
16.3
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

Under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-275), the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-159; 87 Stat. 627), the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, as amended, the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (50 U.S.C. App. 2061, et seq.), and section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows: SECTION 1. Pursuant to the authority vested in me by section 30 of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, notice is hereby given that that act shall be effective as of June 27, 1974. SEC. 2 (a) There is hereby delegated to the Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "Administrator"), all authority vested in the President by the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973. (b) The Administrator shall submit to the Congress the reports required by section 4 (c) (2) of the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973. SEC. 3 (a) There is hereby delegated to the Administrator the authority vested in the President by section 203 (a) (3) of the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, as amended, to the extent such authority remains available under the provisions of section 218 of that act. (b) The authority under the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, as amended, that was delegated to the Administrator of the Federal Energy Office by the Chairman of the Cost of Living Council pursuant to section 4 (b) of Executive Order No. 11748 of December 4, 1973, is hereby transferred to the Administrator to the extent such authority remains available under the provisions of section 218 of that act. SEC. 4. Notwithstanding the provisions of Executive Order No. 10480, as amended, the Administrator is authorized to exercise the authority vested in the President by the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended, except section 708 thereof, as it relates to the production, conservation, use, control, distribution, and allocation of energy, without approval, ratification, or other action of the President or any other official of the executive branch of the Government. SEC. 5 (a) The Federal Energy Office established by Executive Order No. 11748 is hereby abolished, and that Executive order is hereby revoked. (b) The authority vested in the Administrator of the Federal Energy Office to appoint a Deputy Administrator of that Office and to compensate that officer at the rate prescribed for officers and positions at level HI of the Executive Schedule (5 U.S.C. 5314) is hereby revoked. (c) All orders, regulations, circulars, or other directives issued and all other actions taken pursuant to any authority delegated or transferred to the Administrator by this order prior to and in effect on the date of this order are hereby confirmed and ratified, and shall remain in full force and effect, as if issued under this order, unless or until altered, amended, or revoked by the Administrator or by such competent authority as he may specify. (d) All personnel, property, records, and unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, and other funds employed, used, held, available, or to be made available in connection with functions of the Administrator of the Federal Energy Office, as Administrator of that Office or as Chairman of the Oil Policy Committee, are hereby transferred to the Administrator. SEC. 6. All authority delegated or transferred to the Administrator by this order may be further delegated, in whole or in part, by the Administrator to any other office or any department or agency of the United States, or, if authorized by law, to any State or officer thereof. SEC. 7 (a) Proclamation No. 3279, as amended, is hereby amended by striking "Secretary of the Interior" and "Secretary" wherever it appears in that Proclamation and inserting in lieu thereof "Administrator of the Federal Energy Administration." (b) The Appeals Board established by the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to section 5 (a) of Proclamation No. 3279, as amended, is hereby continued until such time as the Administrator shall otherwise direct. The Administrator, at his pleasure, may designate a representative of the Federal Energy Administration to be a member of the Appeals Board in place of the representative of the Department of the Interior specified in the last sentence of section 5 (a) of that proclamation. (c) The Oil Policy Committee is hereby abolished and sections 7, 8, and 9 of Proclamation No. 3279, as amended, are hereby revoked. The functions of the Chairman of the Oil Policy Committee are hereby transferred to the Administrator. (d) Section 10 of Proclamation No. 3279, as amended, is hereby amended by inserting after "Cost of Living Council" the following "or the Federal Energy Administration, as the case may be,". (e) Section 2 of Executive Order No. 11775 of March 26, 1974, is hereby revoked. SEC. 8. Except as provided in section 5 (d), so much of the personnel, property, records, and unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, and other funds employed, used, held, available, or to be made available, in connection with the functions transferred to the Administrator by this order or by the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall determine shall be transferred at such time or times as the Director shall direct for use in connection with the functions so transferred. SEC. 9. Nothing in this order shall be deemed to affect rights to reemployment under the provisions of section 5 (a) (1) (B) of the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act of 1973, or section 212(g) of the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, as amended. SEC. 10. The provisions of sections 2 through 9 of this order shall be effective as of June 27, 1974, the effective date of the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 specified in section 1 of this order. RICHARD NIXON The White House, June 25, 1974.

🔗

Referenced By Later Executive Orders (6)

Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 11,790 (June 25, 1974), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-11790-providing-for-the-effectuation-the-federal-energy-administration-act.