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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo/Alex Brandon).
A coalition of 15 states is taking legal action against the Trump administration for declaring a national “energy emergency” earlier this year, despite the lack of any genuine emergency, according to their federal complaint.
Led by attorneys general in Washington state and California, the group is opposing the president’s alleged “false” energy emergency, declared on January 20 under the National Emergencies Act. According to a Friday press release, the coalition claims that the administration unlawfully announced the emergency to circumvent critical reviews related to ecology, history, and culture, as well as proper permitting protocols for numerous proposed fossil fuel projects nationwide and presumable forthcoming ones, as stated in the complaint.
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The states argue that traditionally, emergency procedures have been restricted to projects needed during or following natural or human-made disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as noted by the coalition.
“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,” the complaint says.
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Filed Friday by the state AGs — all Democrats — the “energy emergency” lawsuit was brought in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
The other states suing are Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
The AGs are targeting the president’s Jan. 20 executive order, “Declaring a National Energy Emergency,” which they say commands the heads of executive departments and federal agencies, including the United States Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps), the Department of Interior (Interior), and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), to issue permits and other approvals “necessary for energy-related projects on an expedited and emergency basis,” according to the complaint.
“The Executive Order is unlawful, and its commands that federal agencies disregard the law and in many cases their own regulations to fast-track extensive categories of activities,” the coalition alleges. “The invocation of the Nation’s emergency authorities, however, is reserved for actual emergencies — not changes in Presidential policy.”
