Two separate but related lawsuits have been filed against the new Trump administration by US environmental groups concerned about the threats from offshore drilling.
One group is challenging an order by President Trump to revoke former President Biden’s withdrawal of vulnerable areas of the ocean from future oil-and-gas leasing. Another set of groups is taking a related action asking a court to reinstate a federal court ruling that invalidated an attempt by the first Trump administration to undo Obama-era offshore protections.
Trump has attempted to open nearly the entire Arctic Ocean to drilling by reviving his first-term order.
Biden protected areas off the Eastern Gulf, Atlantic, Pacific and Alaska coasts by invoking his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. The law authorizes the president to withdraw offshore areas from oil and gas leasing, as eight administrations, including the first Trump administration, have routinely done. However, the law doesn’t authorize the president to revoke the withdrawals of prior presidents, which a federal court confirmed when Trump attempted to undo Obama-era protections for the Arctic Ocean and portions of the Atlantic oceans during his first term.
In the new case, Earthjustice is representing Oceana, Center for Biological Diversity, the Surfrider Foundation, Greenpeace, Healthy Gulf, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Alaska Wilderness League and Turtle Island Restoration Network. The Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council are each representing themselves.
The plaintiffs in the related litigation to reinstate protections for the Arctic and parts of the Atlantic include the League of Conservation Voters, Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Greenpeace and Alaska Wilderness League. Earthjustice and NRDC are representing those groups.
Earthjustice managing attorney for oceans Steve Mashuda said:
“We defeated Trump the first time he tried to roll back protections and sacrifice more of our waters to the oil industry. We’re bringing this abuse of the law to the courts again. Trump is illegally trying to take away protections vital to coastal communities that rely on clean, healthy oceans for safe living conditions, thriving economies, and stable ecosystems.”
Oceana Campaign Director Joseph Gordon said:
“President Trump’s executive order would roll back millions of acres of ocean protection, jeopardizing our coastal economies and the people who rely on healthy, thriving oceans. Leaders in both political parties, thousands of businesses, and millions of Americans support permanently protecting our coasts from offshore drilling. We are confident the court will continue to uphold the bipartisan tradition of presidents safeguarding these coastlines and protecting the people who live and work among them.”
League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski said:
“We shouldn’t have to file this suit again because President Trump already lost the last time he tried this. We are signaling to Congress, the President and the people of this country our commitment to defending already-protected coastal communities and waters from risky and dirty offshore drilling.”
Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said:
“Trump’s putting our oceans, marine wildlife and coastal communities at risk of devastating oil spills and we need the courts to rein in his utter contempt for the law. Offshore oil drilling is destructive from start to finish. Opening up more public waters to the oil industry for short-term gain and political points is a reprehensible and irresponsible way to manage our precious ocean ecosystems.”
