Environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to stop the Trump administration from opening up vast new areas to offshore oil and gas drilling.
The suit is an opening shot in what is likely to be a series of cases aimed at thwarting the White House’s push for what it calls “energy dominance” by pivoting toward fossil fuels and away from cleaner energy sources like solar and wind.
Upon taking office, President Trump said he was revoking Biden-era protections against drilling for certain areas along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the Arctic. Today’s lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Alaska by Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm, on behalf of several groups. It argues that while Congress granted the president the power to place protections on those areas, it did not grant the executive branch the authority to undo those protections.
The lawsuit names Mr. Trump and two cabinet officials — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — acting in their official capacity, as defendants. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A nearly identical effort by the first Trump administration to expand drilling was stopped by a federal judge in Alaska in 2019. Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council on Wednesday also filed a motion on behalf of a broader collection of groups asking the same judge to reinstate that order.
Mr. Trump’s recent executive orders on the expansion of offshore drilling say that the country needs to encourage oil and gas exploration and production to meet demand and ensure that the United States remains a global energy leader.
Critics of the Trump policy point out that the burning of fossil fuels is the main driver of global warming and that scientists say the world needs to move away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible in order to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. They also note that solar and wind power in some cases now produce electricity more cheaply than fossil fuels.
Offshore drilling is risky because oil that spills can travel far, contaminating marine life over wide areas. The 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to the worst offshore oil spill in American history. But even small oil spills that don’t make the headlines can have serious consequences.
Most current offshore drilling takes place outside of the areas in question, particularly in the western and central Gulf of Mexico. Steve Mashuda, the lead lawyer on the case for Earthjustice, called Mr. Trump’s move a “long-term handout” of future development rights to the oil industry that puts people and wildlife at risk. Even activities that come before drilling, like seismic surveys used in prospecting, pose an imminent risk to wildlife, the lawsuit argues.
He also pointed to previous opposition to offshore oil development from coastal communities, including in Republican-led states like Florida, that depend on beach tourism and fishing.
The other groups suing are the Sierra Club, Oceana, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, Healthy Gulf, the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Alaska Wilderness League, the Surfrider Foundation, Greenpeace and the Turtle Island Restoration Network.
Christian Wagley, an organizer for the nonprofit group Healthy Gulf and who is based in Pensacola, Fla., pointed out that both Republicans and Democrats have opposed offshore oil and gas development. He cited an order by Mr. Trump late in his first term to extend a drilling moratorium off Florida that he had previously opposed.
“I think there’s maybe more bluster at work here than reality,” Mr. Wagley said of Mr. Trump’s most recent order. “I hope that our elected officials will maintain the long bipartisan tradition of keeping drilling away from Florida.”
While the lawsuit appeared to be the first environmentally focused one of Mr. Trump’s second term, there are numerous other legal challenges to the administration’s early moves to freeze funding and cut the federal work force. Programs related to climate change and to protecting poor and minority communities affected by pollution were among the first targets for Trump officials.
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