The Daily Fuckup

Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit in Alaska on Feb. 19, 2025, challenging President Donald Trump’s first-day executive order that revoked Biden-era protections for offshore waters and set up a wider push for oil and gas leasing at sea. The case lands as the administration tries to move quickly on energy policy and as opponents argue the president went past the authority Congress gave him under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. ([nrdc.org](https://www.nrdc.org/press-releases/environmental-groups-sue-block-trumps-repeal-offshore-drilling-protections?utm_source=openai))

The complaint says Trump’s order improperly rolled back protections covering more than 625 million acres of ocean, including areas off the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Arctic coasts. The plaintiffs, led by NRDC and Earthjustice, say only Congress can authorize that kind of reversal and that the law does not let a president erase prior withdrawals whenever the White House changes hands. The lawsuit names Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. ([nrdc.org](https://www.nrdc.org/press-releases/environmental-groups-sue-block-trumps-repeal-offshore-drilling-protections?utm_source=openai))

The legal fight is centered on how courts read Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which has long been used to withdraw federal offshore areas from future leasing. Environmental groups say Biden and earlier presidents used that authority to protect sensitive waters, and that Trump’s Jan. 20 action tried to undo those safeguards without a fresh act of Congress. The White House, in its broader energy orders the same day, said it was trying to encourage exploration and production on federal lands and waters, including the outer continental shelf. ([nrdc.org](https://www.nrdc.org/press-releases/environmental-groups-sue-block-trumps-repeal-offshore-drilling-protections?utm_source=openai))

The filing was described by the groups behind it as the first environmental lawsuit against the new Trump administration. It also revisits a legal fight from Trump’s first term, when his attempt to reverse offshore protections ran into court challenges. This round is likely to test the same basic question: how much control a president has over offshore leasing policy, and where the statutory line blocks unilateral reversal. ([earthjustice.org](https://earthjustice.org/press/2025/groups-file-first-environmental-lawsuit-vs-new-trump-administration-challenging-illegal-order-to-undo-ocean-protections-from-offshore-drilling?utm_source=openai))

For now, the case gives opponents of expanded offshore drilling an early vehicle to challenge Trump’s energy agenda in court. It also shows how quickly the administration’s first-day orders are being met with litigation, especially where the White House is trying to turn executive action into a fast policy reset without waiting for Congress. ([nrdc.org](https://www.nrdc.org/press-releases/environmental-groups-sue-block-trumps-repeal-offshore-drilling-protections?utm_source=openai))