WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Several environmental groups have united in a new lawsuit against the Trump Administration to push back on an effort to open up millions of acres of coastal areas for offshore oil and gas drilling.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 19, was filed by the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Surfrider Foundation. They’re arguing the administration has violated federal law and the U.S. Constitution, which they say provides explicit power to Congress – and not the president – to regulate federal water and lands.
The groups say they’re concerned about drilling’s potential impacts on wildlife, the environment, coastal communities’ economies and health — pointing to pollution and the possibility of oil spills.
“Offshore drilling causes grave impacts to the environment through every stage of the process,” said Pete Stauffer, the ocean protection manager for the Surfrider Foundation.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which helps oversee offshore drilling within the U.S. Department of Interior, said they can’t comment on active litigation.
Before he left office, President Joe Biden banned offshore drilling for 625 million acres of coastal waters. President Donald Trump, though, recently revoked those protections.
Proponents of drilling say it helps lower energy costs, creates jobs and ensures energy security.
Hundreds of east coast communities – including the city of Wilmington, Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach – have signed resolutions opposing offshore drilling, however. Those resolutions are more symbolic than anything, Stauffer said, since the local governments can’t enforce what’s done in the water. But the groups in the suit say it’s also a sign of the bipartisan opposition to the practice.
“Those are really important signals that the people who live on America’s coastline want an economy and region that’s free from oil and gas development,” said Irene Gutierrez, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Groups led a similar push against the first Trump Administration, and ended up winning in federal court after the president tried to revoke Obama-era drilling bans. The goal this time is the same, they say, but that suit also took several years to play out.
“This is an all-out attack on the oceans and the environment,” said Brady Bradshaw, the senior oceans campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity. “We believe our legal argument for defending these protections is very strong and we’re gonna pursue this lawsuit to the end.”
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