According to CBS, the majority of the country is suing President Trump’s administration for efforts to quickly track energy projects.
Trump issued an executive order declaring a “national energy emergency” on the first day of his presidency. This is part of Trump’s push to expand US oil and gas production. The order will encourage the expansion of oil and gas through federal use of prominent domains and the Defense Production Act, allowing governments to use private land and resources to produce goods that are deemed a national need.
These types of measures are to be booked for actual emergencies, including projects needed in the aftermath of disasters such as hurricanes, floods and major oil spills, the Attorney General wrote in a lawsuit filed Friday.
However, 15 plaintiffs now argue that agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior are bypassing necessary reviews under federal laws such as the Cleanwater Act and the Endangered Species Species Act. The state argues that inappropriate permitting processes “produce serious and irreparable harm to the nation’s natural and historical resources, as well as those and biota who rely on those resources for drinking, agriculture, reproducing and habitat.”