By Rebecca Boone
A coalition of 15 states continues President Donald Trump’s efforts to speed up energy -related projects, saying that the administration bypassing environmental protection laws and threatened threatening species, critical habitats and cultural resources.
Trump published an executive decree declaring a “national energy emergency” on the first day of his presidency. The ordinance urges the expansion of oil and gas thanks to the federal use of the eminent domain and the law on defense production, which allows the government to use private land and resources to produce goods considered as a national necessity.
These types of measures are supposed to be reserved for real emergencies, such as the projects necessary following disasters such as hurricanes, floods or major oil spills, the Attorney General wrote in the state of Washington on Friday.
But now, the public prosecutor of Washington’s state, Nick Brown and the other complainants have said that agencies like the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Interior Ministry bypass the examinations required under federal laws such as Clean Water Act and the Disappearance Species Act.
The general prosecutors said that reliable and affordable electricity was of crucial importance for the nation, but noted that American energy production is already at a record level.
“The decree is illegal, and its orders that federal agencies do not take into account the law and, in many cases, their own regulations to accelerate the vast categories of activities will lead to damage to water, wetlands, critical housing, historical and cultural resources, endangered species and the population and the fauna that are based on these precious resources” trial.
“The inherent shortcuts to rush through the emergency processes fundamentally undermines the rights of the States,” said the Attorney General, noting that the Federal Act on Clean Waters gives States the right to protect water quality within their own borders.
They want a federal judge to declare the executive decree and prohibit agencies from continuing emergency permits for non -urgent projects.
The White House was not immediately available to comment.
The Attorney General of Brown and California, Rob Bonta, directs the trial and prosecutor general of Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
