Washington state sues to block Trump order expediting fossil fuel projects

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown is suing over what he says is President Donald Trump's unlawful declaration of an energy emergency, which is intended to speed up permitting procedures for fossil fuel projects.

Brown’s latest lawsuit, his 17th against the Trump administration, was filed Friday in the Western District of Washington and joined by 14 other states.

Brown said Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order titled “Declaring a National Energy Emergency” allows federal agencies to bypass or weaken critical environmental reviews under the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.

“All of these actions cause direct harm to Washington state and our environment,” Brown said at a press conference Friday. “And all of these actions are done to undermine state efforts to combat climate change and keep our communities safe.”

The lawsuit comes the same week that Brown also challenged the administration for withholding congressionally approved funding for electric vehicle charging projects.

Trump’s executive order declaring an energy emergency states that “an affordable and reliable domestic supply of energy is a fundamental requirement for the national and economic security of any nation” and cites specific concerns with the “Northeast and West Coast, where dangerous state and local policies jeopardize our nation’s core national defense and security needs.”

Brown said no such emergency exists, and Trump’s order comes at a time when “U.S. energy production is greater than it’s ever been.” Brown added that the order also excludes wind, solar, and battery projects “despite the fact that those projects are some of the cheapest and cleanest energy sources today.”

Washington Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh blasted Brown's latest lawsuit as "disappointing but not surprising." Walsh said the order followed an explicit campaign promise from Trump. "Now he’s keeping his word," Walsh said in a statement.

Walsh also accused Brown and other backers of the lawsuit of being "intellectually inconsistent," saying, "They supported the non-standard emergency declarations when Jay Inslee and Joe Biden were making them. Now, suddenly, they’re grasping for weak logic to oppose Trump’s use of the same tool."

The lawsuit names Trump as well as officials with the U.S. Army, the Corps of Engineers, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. According to the complaint, “to date, the Corps and other agencies have limited use of emergency procedures to projects necessary during or in the aftermath of natural or human-made disasters like hurricanes" and flooding.

It continues, “But now, prodded onto the shakiest of limbs by the president’s unsupported and unlawful executive order, multiple federal agencies now seek to broadly employ these emergency procedures in non-emergency situations to, among other actions, permit discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States.”

Casey Sixkiller, director of the Washington Department of Ecology, joined Brown to announce the lawsuit.

“The risk of environmental harm doesn’t go away because federal agencies throw up their arms and say, ‘whatever.’ State agencies, local governments and tribes will do whatever is necessary to make sure the federal government’s illegal actions don’t harm our land, our waters or the people of Washington State,” Sixkiller said.

Bill Iyall, chairman of Cowlitz Tribe, also endorsed the lawsuit. He said the tribe will struggle to give input on projects affecting the lower Columbia River if they have just seven or 14 days to weigh in.

“We just want to be assured that there is a factual basis for these emergencies,” he said.

The complaint noted that some projects have disappeared from a federal database, “creating uncertainty about the Corps’s plans for these proposed projects.”