Washington challenges declaration of national energy emergency

Washington has joined 14 other states in a challenge to President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national energy emergency, which has allowed the federal government to circumvent certain environmental protection reviews.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, is co-led by Washington and California, and alleges that the declaration allows federal agencies to bypass or shorten reviews under the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and the Historic National Preservation Act for energy projects.

“The president’s attempt to bypass important environmental protections is illegal and would cause immense harm to Washingtonians. This won’t lower prices, increase our energy supply, or make our country safer,” Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. “We’re back in court to hold him accountable.”

The declaration was among Trump’s first acts as he returned to office. During his inaugural address, Trump attributed ongoing inflation to higher energy prices and vowed to “drill baby drill.”

“We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world,” Trump said.

In the Jan. 20 declaration, Trump wrote that the country needs a “reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy to drive our Nation’s manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defense industries, and to sustain the basics of modern life and military preparedness.”

The emergency declaration cites an unreliable grid and inadequate energy supply as issues that “require swift and decisive action.”

According to the declaration, the problems are most pronounced in the northeast and West Coast, where “dangerous State and local policies jeopardize our Nation’s core national defense and security needs, and devastate the prosperity of not only local residents but the entire United States population.”

The declaration, Trump said during his joint address to Congress, has allowed “the most talented team ever assembled” to tap into the country’s oil reserves.

According to Brown, the declaration “causes direct harm” to Washington and its environment, and efforts to combat climate change. Trump has issued more emergency declarations and more executive orders in his first 100 days than any other president.

“This is not a serious or lawful effort by the president,” Brown said. “It is all about eliminating competition, and shackling America to dirty fossil fuels forever.”

Brown was joined Friday by Casey Sixkiller, director of the Washington Department of Ecology, who said environmental regulations exist “because we’ve seen what happens when they don’t.”

“The federal administration is proposing an end-run that ignores the hard lessons of the past,” Sixkiller said. “These protections aren’t red tape – they’re guardrails that protect our air, water, land, and keep our families safe.”

The lawsuit is the 16th Brown has filed against the Trump administration, and the fourth filed this week. On Monday, Washington and 18 other states challenged planned cuts to staffing and services at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and filed suit with 18 states over the Trump administration from curtailing wind energy development.

On Wednesday, Brown announced a multistate lawsuit against the Trump administration for terminating billions in funding for electric vehicle infrastructure.