Attorney General Bonta Files Amended Complaint in Lawsuit Against Trump Administration over "Declaring a National Energy Emergency" Executive Order

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today co-led a multistate coalition in filing an amended complaint expanding its ongoing legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order (EO) entitled “Declaring a National Energy Emergency.” The amended complaint adds the United States 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 and other energy projects. Last May, the multistate coalition filed a lawsuit challenging the President’s 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 President Biden and has continued growing, President Trump unlawfully invoked authority under the National Emergencies Act to improperly declare a “national energy emergency.” Despite there being no energy emergency, pursuant to the EO, the Department of Interior asserts the existence of an energy emergency to fast-track fossil fuel projects while simultaneously blocking the development of cost-effective wind and solar energy projects. As a result, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition amended the previously-filed complaint to include the Department of Interior.  

“We do not have a national energy emergency, period. Yet the President is fabricating one to continue to line the pockets of big corporations,” said Attorney General Bonta. “I filed a lawsuit with a coalition of attorneys general challenging the President’s unlawful declaration, and now we’re going back to court to block the Department of Interior’s illegal actions pursuant to his directive. We will not let the Trump Administration illegally bypass important environmental protections and will continue to hold them accountable for breaking the law.”  

On January 20, 2025, his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order that declared a “national energy emergency” under the National Emergencies Act. Pursuant to this directive, the Corps was instructed to identify projects for accelerated permitting under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Under Section 404 of the CWA, the Corps issues permits for the discharge of dredged or fill materials into navigable waters nationwide, typically for water resource projects such as dams and levees, infrastructure development such as highways and airports, mining projects, and flood control projects. The Corps subsequently issued “special emergency permit processing procedures” for Corps districts across the country that bypass standard processes and protections. Other agencies, including the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Department of the Interior, have followed suit, issuing emergency procedures and/or guidance to expedite permitting of energy projects and avoid ordinary processes and protections. Until now, federal agencies have used emergency procedures during actual emergencies such as hurricanes and catastrophic oil spills — for example, the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Federal agencies are now acting under emergency procedures only due to the President’s decision to declare a national energy emergency when no such emergency exists.  

In today’s amended complaint, the coalition argues that the Department of 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.  

Attorney General Bonta is leading this lawsuit with Washington Attorney General Nick Brown. They are joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.