California and other states sued to block the Trump administration from easing requirements that agencies consider environmental consequences when approving new oil wells, pipelines, highways and other projects.
It’s the latest salvo by Democrat-led states to reverse the federal government’s deregulatory actions that comes as President Donald Trump campaigns for re-election. The lawsuit filed Friday, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, marks the state’s 100th legal challenge to Trump’s policies. The biggest portion of those cases have targeted the president’s moves to scale back environmental rules, but litigation also has focused on an array of other issues, from health care to immigration.
”The Trump Administration has spent the better part of four years trying to roll back critical protections and undo hard-fought progress, particularly in the environmental space, Becerra said in an emailed statement. “We haven’t let its illegal conduct go unchecked and today will be no different.”
The Trump administration in July issued a final rule revising the way federal agencies examine the environmental impacts of infrastructure projects, from oil wells and wind farms to highways and airports. The measure limited the scope of those agency reviews as well as what projects must be scrutinized under the 50-year-old Nixon-era National Environmental Policy Act.
Trump has drawn on his real estate development experience in complaining that environmental reviews are protracted and burdensome.
— With assistance by Jennifer A Dlouhy, and Erik Larson
