AG Nick Brown blasts Trump’s ‘fake energy emergency’ in new WA lawsuit
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown on Friday announced a new lawsuit against President Donald Trump — marking the 17th time since January that the state has led or participated in a suit against the federal administration.
The latest legal challenge takes aim at Trump’s “fake ‘energy emergency,’” as Brown’s office puts it.
Washington and California are spearheading this multi-state complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Trump is named as a defendant, as are the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.
Brown blasted an executive order issued by Trump on Inauguration Day that declared a “national energy emergency.” The attorney general claims it was done to pad the pockets of Big Oil by paving the way for such companies to pollute the environment.
No energy emergency actually exists, according to Brown. But because of Trump’s directive, federal agencies are skipping or weakening crucial reviews meant to protect the environment and endangered species.
“All of these actions cause direct harm to Washington state and our environment,” Brown said at a May 9 news conference in Seattle. “And all of these actions are done to undermine state efforts to combat climate change and keep our communities safe.”
The White House responded to news of the lawsuit by highlighting Trump’s authority.
“The President of the United States has the authority to determine what is a national emergency, not state attorneys or the courts,” Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said in an email to McClatchy. “President Trump recognizes that unleashing American energy is crucial to both our economic and national security.”
Trump’s executive order directs the leaders of executive departments and federal agencies to issue permits and approvals needed for energy-related projects on an emergency and expedited basis, as noted in the lawsuit.
The president’s directive blames the previous federal administration for the country’s “inadequate” energy supply and “increasingly unreliable grid.”
It also claims the issues are most pronounced on the West Coast and Northeast, “where dangerous state and local policies jeopardize our Nation’s core national defense and security needs.”
Brown said the national-emergency declaration comes at a time when U.S. energy production is “greater than it’s ever been.” Yet excluded from the order are wind, battery and solar projects — which Brown said are some of the cleanest and cheapest sources of energy today.
He decried the order as “nonsense,” pointing out that Trump has declared more emergencies than any other U.S. president to date, and has issued the highest number of executive orders in his first 100 days.
“This is not a serious or lawful effort by the president,” Brown said. “It is all about eliminating competition and shackling America to dirty fossil fuels forever.”
The suing attorneys general want the court to declare Trump’s directive unlawful, as well as its implementation by agencies. They also want to halt the issuance of emergency permits under the order.
The Washington AG’s Office argues that the only real emergency is that Trump doesn’t agree with climate-change policies in Washington and other states.
Bill Iyall, chairman of the Cowlitz Tribe, said the Tribe wants to safeguard its natural and cultural resources along the lower Columbia River. But the sped-up permitting process could make that more challenging.
“So we just want to be assured that there is a factual basis for these emergencies,” he said. “Looking at a project individually, if you did it carefully and planned it carefully, you would be able to minimize those impacts and get a facilitated permit.”
Casey Sixkiller, director of the Washington State Department of Ecology, said that as a parent, he thinks often about the kind of world that’ll be left for future generations. The state has long been a leader in creating environmental protections and tackling the effects of climate change, he said.
He slammed the federal government’s latest use of emergency powers as reckless and unnecessary, casting them as a work-around benefiting oil and gas companies — at the expense of Washingtonians’ health and lands.
Sixkiller views environmental regulations as “guardrails” to protect the environment, not “red tape.”
“As Governor Ferguson has repeatedly said: We’re not going back,” Sixkiller said. “We’re standing up for what we know is right. We’re standing up for the law, and we’re standing up for the people and places that call this place home.”
This story was originally published May 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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