Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul, along with 16 attorneys general, filed an amended complaint expanding their ongoing legal challenge to the Trump administration’s so-called “National Energy Emergency” executive order. The executive order (EO) short-cuts critical environmental protections to benefit fossil fuel production by claiming emergency conditions, despite U.S. energy production being at an all-time high.

 Raoul and the coalition’s amended complaint adds the U.S. Department of the Interior as a defendant, challenging its actions to illegally bypass requirements in the National Environmental Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and other federal laws when permitting fossil fuel development. At the same time, the executive order excludes clean energy sources such as wind, solar and batteries from the same preferential treatment.

 “This is the Trump administration’s latest attempt to invent an emergency in order to further policy preferences,” Raoul said. “This executive order would allow important environmental protections to be bypassed while doing nothing to lower energy prices. I am happy to join my fellow attorneys general in this lawsuit.”

 Last May, the Raoul and coalition filed a lawsuit challenging the EO, along with the actions taken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation pursuant to the EO. Although national energy production reached an all-time high under the Biden administration and has continued growing, Trump unlawfully invoked authority under the National Emergencies Act to improperly declare a “national energy emergency.” 

 This directive instructed the Corps to identify projects for accelerated permitting under the Clean Water Act. The Corps subsequently issued “special emergency permit processing procedures” across the country that bypass standard environmental processes and protections. Until now, federal agencies have used emergency procedures only during actual emergencies, including hurricanes and catastrophic oil spills, such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

 Despite there being no energy emergency, the Department of the Interior asserts the existence of an energy emergency in accordance with the EO to fast-track fossil fuel projects while simultaneously blocking the development of cost-effective wind and solar energy projects. As a result, Attorney General Raoul and the coalition amended the previously filed complaint to include the Department of the Interior. 

Raoul and the coalition argue in the amended complaint that the Department of the Interior also illegally bypassed the legal requirements set forth in numerous federal laws when permitting fossil fuel and other energy projects, including the National Environmental Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. 

 Joining Raoul in this lawsuit are attorneys general of California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.