Washington is leading 14 other states in a new lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring a “national energy emergency” and seeking to shortcut environmental reviews for oil drilling and other fossil fuel projects.
The lawsuit, announced by Attorney General Nick Brown at a news conference Friday, was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Brown noted Trump’s emergency order came even though U.S. energy production is at an all-time high.
“This is not a serious or lawful effort by the president. It is all about eliminating competition and shackling America to dirty fossil fuels forever,” Brown said at the news conference.
Trump’s executive order was part of a flurry of directives issued on his first day in office this year. It seeks to boost oil and other fossil fuel production, while excluding solar, wind and other renewable energy projects.
Trump declared a “national energy emergency” under the National Emergencies Act, according to Brown, despite Congress passing the measure to prevent presidents from declaring national emergencies for frivolous or partisan matters.
“Our Nation’s current inadequate development of domestic energy resources leaves us vulnerable to hostile foreign actors and poses an imminent and growing threat to the United States’ prosperity and national security,” Trump declared in the executive order, signed on Jan. 20.
The problems, Trump’s order said, “are most pronounced” in the northeastern U.S. and on the West Coast, where he said “dangerous” climate policies “devastate the prosperity of not only local residents but the entire United States population.”
The order has led federal agencies to begin bypassing or shortening reviews of energy projects under the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Historic National Preservation Act, according to Brown’s office.
Along with Trump, the lawsuit Friday names as defendants the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Other states joining the case include California, Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
The lawsuit is Brown’s 17th against the Trump administration.
The cases have included challenges to Trump’s efforts to revoke birthright citizenship, end DEI programs in schools, and several attempts to cut congressionally approved funding for public health, scientific research and other services.
Several have succeeded in obtaining court orders temporarily blocking Trump’s actions.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
