Environmental Groups Sue To Reinstate Offshore Drilling Bans

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC – Environmental groups filed lawsuits on February 19 challenging President Donald Trump’s reversal of offshore drilling bans, marking the first legal pushback against his environmental policies in his second term.

One lawsuit, led by the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, argues that Trump lacks the authority to revoke former President Joe Biden’s ban on drilling in protected coastal waters, Reuters reported. Another, filed by the League of Conservation Voters, seeks to reinstate restrictions on oil leasing across 128 million acres in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans that were originally imposed by former President Barack Obama, Reuters said.

Biden had imposed new offshore drilling restrictions before leaving office, though they primarily covered undeveloped areas. Trump moved quickly to lift those protections through executive orders, aiming to expand domestic oil production.

The lawsuits, filed in an Alaska federal court, argue that opening protected waters to drilling could threaten endangered species, ecosystems, and local communities.

“We stopped Trump’s first attempt to undo these protections, and we’re taking him to court again,” said Steve Mashuda of Earthjustice to Reuters.