Democratic states are preparing to challenge a Trump administration plan that would limit their oversight of water pollution from major energy projects.
The administration’s proposal to prevent states from blocking or imposing environmental conditions on pipelines, dams and other infrastructure violates the Clean Water Act and runs afoul of Supreme Court precedent, attorneys general from 16 blue states and Washington said Tuesday.
The states called on EPA to abandon its draft rule curtailing states’ role in energy permitting and signaled they will sue if it is finalized. Under the first Trump administration, the agency issued a similar policy, prompting a lawsuit from a similar group of states.
“EPA’s last attempt to accomplish this improper goal in 2020 was a failure,” the states said in a comment letter to EPA, signed by Washington state Attorney General Nicholas Brown, New York Attorney General Letitia James and others. “EPA now backtracks and repeats its most significant mistakes.”
