Washington is heading 14 other states in a new lawsuit that calls for President Donald Trump’s executive order to declare a “national energy emergency” and shortcuts environmental reviews for oil drilling, pipelines and other fossil fuel projects.
The lawsuit, released by Attorney General Nick Brown at a press conference on Friday, has been filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Criticizing Trump’s emergency declaration as “fake,” Brown said it came despite the US energy production at its highest ever.
“This is not a serious or legal effort by the president. It’s about eliminating competition and tying America to dirty fossil fuels forever,” Brown told Seattle’s press conference.
Trump’s executive order was part of the gusts of the order issued this year on his first day in office. It seeks to boost the production of oil, gas and other fossil fuels while excluding solar and wind energy projects.
61 pages of lawsuit He claims that Trump’s order violated the National Emergency Act, passed in Congress in 1976.
Previously, according to the lawsuit, the US Army Corps. Engineers and other federal agencies have restricted the use of emergency procedures to quickly track permits after major disasters such as hurricanes and floods, or the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
“But now, several federal agencies, who have been stabbed into the most unstable limbs by unsupported illegal executive orders, are now trying to widely adopt these emergency procedures in non-emergency situations,” the lawsuit states.
Trump’s orders attack what he called the “myopic and harmful policies” of his predecessor, President Joe Biden, claiming that “quickly and decisive” action was necessary to strengthen fossil fuel production.
“We’ll do drills, babes, drills,” Trump said.
“The current development of our country’s domestic energy resources will make us vulnerable to hostile foreign actors, pose an imminent and growing threat to the prosperity and national security of the United States,” declared Trump. Presidential Order.
The issue is “most prominent” in the Northeastern and West Coast of the United States, Trump’s order said that “dangerous” climate policy “destroys prosperity not only for local residents but for the entire United States.”
This order defines “energy resources” that we want to increase primarily as fossil fuels, and specifies crude oil, natural gas, refined petroleum products, and uranium and coal. This order also includes biofuels, geothermal heat and hydroelectric power, but excludes wind, solar and battery projects.
The order has led federal agencies to bypass or shorten reviews of energy projects under the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Species Act and the Historic National Preservation Act, according to the lawsuit.
In February, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers listed 688 permits for projects nationwide that were covered by the emergency order, the lawsuit said.
In Washington, the lawsuit cites four projects that the Corps is trying to advance under the emergency order, circumventing established laws and environmental requirements. This includes replacements and repairs to natural gas pipelines running beneath the Little Washgull and Columbia Rivers.
Brown was attended by Casey Sixkiller, the Director of the State Department’s Ecology, and Bill Iyor, chairman of the Caulitz Tribe.
Iyall said the tribes want to preserve “cultural and natural resources” along the lower Columbia River, and are worried that a rapid pursuit under Trump’s order would make it difficult.
“Looking individually through projects can help minimize the impact of those if you go carefully and plan them carefully,” Iyall says.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare Trump’s orders illegal and prohibit federal agencies from issuing fast-tracked permits based on the order.
Along with Trump, the lawsuit, head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, named after Friday, filed an Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation. Other states participating in the incident include California, Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
This is Brown’s 17th lawsuit against the Trump administration.
The case includes challenges to Trump’s efforts to revoke birthright citizenship, the termination of the DEI program in schools, and several attempts to cut Congress-approved funding for public health, scientific research and other services.
Some have managed to get court orders that temporarily block Trump’s actions. The birthright citizenship lawsuit heads to the U.S. Supreme Court next week.
