A coalition of 15 states is suing over President Donald Trump’s efforts to fast-track energy-related projects, saying the administration is bypassing environmental protection laws and threatening endangered species, critical habitat and cultural resources.
Trump issued an executive order declaring a “national energy emergency ” on the first day of his presidency. The order urges oil and gas expansion through federal use of eminent domain and the Defense Production Act, which allows the government to use private land and resources to produce goods deemed to be a national necessity.
Those kinds of steps are supposed to be reserved for actual emergencies, such as projects needed in the aftermath of disasters like hurricanes, flooding or major oil spills, the attorneys general wrote in the lawsuit filed in Washington state on Friday.
But now, Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown and the other plaintiffs said, agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Interior are bypassing required reviews under federal laws like the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
“The President of the United States has the authority to determine what is a national emergency, not state attorneys or the courts,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers wrote in an email. “President Trump recognizes that unleashing American energy is crucial to both our economic and national security.”
The attorneys general said reliable and affordable electricity is of critical importance to the nation, but noted that U.S. energy production is already at an all-time high.
“The Executive Order is unlawful, and its commands that federal agencies disregard the law and in many cases their own regulations to fast-track extensive categories of activities will result in damage to waters, wetlands, critical habitat, historic and cultural resources, endangered species, and the people and wildlife that rely on these precious resources,” they wrote in the lawsuit.
“The shortcuts inherent in rushing through emergency processes fundamentally undermine the rights of States,” the attorneys general said, noting that the federal Clean Water Act grants states the right to protect water quality within their own borders.
They want a federal judge to declare the executive order unlawful and bar the agencies from pursuing emergency permitting for non-emergency projects.
Brown and California Attorney General Rob Bonta are leading the lawsuit, and the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin have signed on.
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