Conservationists on Wednesday sued the Trump administration over its attempts to boost the oil industry by rolling back green policies.
Filed by the environmental non-profit Center for Biological Diversity, the litigation focuses on Trump’s day-one “unleashing American energy” executive order. In an effort to boost already booming US energy production, the emergency declaration directed federal agencies to identify all policies and regulations that “unduly” burden fuel producers and create “action plans” to weaken or remove them.
The lawsuit seeks information about the development of these action plans from four federal agencies: the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
Since the executive order was passed, the administration has announced plans to eliminate scores of other green policies. Last week, for instance, it emerged that the EPA plans to eliminate long-standing requirements for polluting companies to collect and report their greenhouse gas emissions, ProPublica reported.
The legal challenge follows a February request for information filed by the advocacy group under the Freedom of Information Act (Foia), for which officials have not yet provided any records.
“Given the substantial implications for air and water, wildlife and nature, climate, public lands, and the environment generally through the development of energy resources,” the lawsuit says, “the Center is deeply interested in, and affected by, how the action plans implementing the Executive Order could harm, undermine, or negate the Center’s longstanding efforts to protect the environment.”
Foia is meant to compel officials to provide access to information about the functioning of federal agencies within 20 business days of a request. Though backlogs have long been common, the advocacy group says it is concerned the Trump administration is deliberately slowing the process to block public access to information.
The lawsuit comes as federal agencies have slashed protections for public lands, approved air pollution permits for fossil fuel-processing facilities without environmental reviews, and gutted slews of green policies and spending plans while firing thousands of civil servants.
It also follows record donations to Trump’s presidential campaign from oil, gas and coal companies, sparking concerns of corruption. In a June meeting at his Mar-a-Lago club, Trump infamously asked fossil fuel bosses for $1bn in campaign contributions, while vowing to unravel dozens of Biden-era environmental policies.
“It seems obvious that polluters and other special interests are completely in the driver’s seat and probably ghost-writing all of Trump’s pro-fossil fuel directives,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Why else would Trump officials be so defiant about illegally keeping the public in the dark?”
The EPA declined to comment on the pending litigation. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The new lawsuit comes as part of a wave of litigation seeking transparency from the Trump administration. Green groups earlier this week sued federal officials over the removal of government webpages containing federal climate and environmental justice data; last month, another lawsuit targeted the US Department of Agriculture’s erasure of climate data.
The Trump administration and the so-called “department of government efficiency”, helmed by billionaire Elon Musk, pledged to be “maximally transparent”. Yet federal officials have undercut that promise, environmentalists say, including by gutting public records teams.
“The Trump administration and Doge continue to dismantle environmental safeguards across the nation without a modicum of transparency,” said Hartl.
Foia was an important tool for environmentalists during Trump’s first term. A request filed by the Sierra Club led to the former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s resignation, and records obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity led to an investigation by the inspector general of then interior secretary David Bernhardt.
