February, 07 2021, 11:00pm EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Amy van Saun, Center for Food Safety:
avansaun@centerforfoodsafety.org
Jared Margolis, Center for Biological Diversity:
jmargolis@biologicaldiversity.org
Maia Raposo, Waterkeeper Alliance:
mraposo@waterkeeper.org
Hallie Templeton, Friends of the Earth:
htempleton@foe.org
Mark Drajem, NRDC:
mdrajem@nrdc.org
Marianne Cufone, Recirculating Farms:
mcufone@recirculatingfarms.org
Lawsuit Launched Over Army Corps' Failure to Protect Endangered Wildlife From Nationwide Permit Program
Program Greenlights Environmental Destruction Across Country
WASHINGTON
Center for Food Safety, the Center for Biological Diversity, Waterkeeper Alliance, and allies issued a formal notice today of their intent to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for failing to ensure that Nationwide Permits reissued during the final days of the Trump administration will not jeopardize endangered species and critical habitat across the country. These Nationwide Permits allow for streamlined industrial development such as oil pipelines, coal mines, and marine aquaculture facilities through waterways across the country, resulting in the destruction of tens of thousands of acres of streams, rivers and wetlands.
"The Trump administration flagrantly violated bedrock environmental laws when it reissued the Nationwide Permits, without regard for the people, places or wildlife that are affected by this deeply flawed program," said Jared Margolis, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "I'm hoping President Biden will prevent the Corps from continuing to use the permits to rubber-stamp major projects like oil pipelines that leak and spill, degrading the clean water that people and wildlife need."
"The new NWP 56 would open our federal waters to industrial-scale finfish aquaculture -- the factory farms of the sea -- with no limits on impacts to wildlife, including endangered fish, turtles and marine mammals," said Amy van Saun, senior attorney at Center for Food Safety. "Without ESA consultation, the Army Corps is blindly exposing our ocean wildlife to harm from farmed fish escapes, inputs like pesticides and drugs, and industrial equipment which can entangle sensitive species."
The Biden administration has called for a review of the Nationwide Permits consistent with its Jan. 20 Executive Order "Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis." While the groups are hopeful that this process will result in important changes to the program, if the Corps continues to ignore its duty to properly account for the harm Nationwide Permit activities pose to species, then litigation may be necessary.
"Rather than comply with a court order to ensure that endangered species are protected from further death and destruction, the Trump administration doubled down on its original violation by issuing even weaker Nationwide Permits with fewer protections for these species," said Daniel E. Estrin, general counsel for Waterkeeper Alliance. "It's long past time for the Corps to rethink its approach to dredge-and-fill permitting and to ensure that these activities will not put endangered species or their habitat in jeopardy."
"These Nationwide Permits allow streamlined permitting for a range of dirty industries, from oil and gas pipelines to offshore aquaculture, all without fulfilling mandated environmental reviews and consultations," said Hallie Templeton, deputy legal director at Friends of the Earth. "We will continue to fight against widespread environmental and socio-economic harms that disregard science and sustainability."
"The Trump administration gave a free pass to polluters on the way out the door," said Jon Devine, director of federal water policy at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). "The Biden administration must toss this egregious giveaway and restore meaningful protections to streams and wetlands and the wildlife that depends on them -- or we will turn to the courts to enforce the law."
Background
Nationwide Permits have been approved approximately every five years since 1982. The 16 new permits will allow hundreds of thousands of discharges of dredged or fill material into the nation's waters and wetlands from oil and gas development, pipeline and transmission-line construction, and coal mining.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service have previously found that these activities -- which are approved with little or no environmental review -- threaten iconic species including whooping cranes, Florida manatees, and the hundreds of migratory birds that need wetlands to survive.
Thousands of projects each year rely on the permits to conduct activities that cause sedimentation and contamination of essential habitats, directly harming species through construction activities and powerline collisions. But the extent of the damage is unknown, since the Army Corps does not collect sufficient information to consider those effects.
In prior litigation, a federal court found that the Corps had violated the Endangered Species Act by not undertaking consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service regarding the impacts on endangered wildlife from Nationwide Permit 12, which is used for massive oil and gas pipelines. That litigation prevented the continued construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Trump administration ignored that decision and reissued the program without conducting the necessary consultation to ensure imperiled species are protected.
Thousands of public comments were submitted for the proposed reissuance and adoption of the new offshore-aquaculture permits, highlighting the risk of harm from this program; yet the Army Corps failed to take the steps necessary to comply with the law and prevent the continued devastation of our wetland resources.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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Unions Cheer After Judge Halts Trump Order on Federal Workers' Collective Bargaining Rights
"Today's court order is a victory for federal employees, their union rights, and the American people they serve," said the head of the National Treasury Employees Union.
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Labor unions representing federal workers celebrated on Friday after a U.S. district judge blocked President Donald Trump's March executive order intended to strip the collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of government employees.
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) swiftly took action over what union national president Doreen Greenwald called "an attempt to silence the voices of our nation's public servants," filing a lawsuit in in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.
Judge Paul Friedman, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, granted a preliminary injunction on Friday, blocking implementation of the executive order (EO), which aimed to restrict workers' rights under the guise of protecting national security.
CNNreported that during a Wednesday hearing, Friedman questioned "Trump's motive in issuing the order" and "the administration's contention that certain agencies have national security as their primary function, citing the National Institutes of Health, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Department of Agriculture."
Also reporting on the hearing earlier this week, Politicodetailed:
Attorneys representing the NTEU mentioned that the Trump administration, after issuing the EO, immediately sued an NTEU-affiliate union in Kentucky and Texas—federal districts dominated by Republican appointees.
Shortly after Friedman's hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, who is hearing the government's case in Kentucky, denied a request from a local NTEU chapter to postpone oral arguments that are scheduled for Friday. Reeves is an appointee of President George W. Bush. A decision in those cases could affect the NTEU's lawsuit before Friedman.
Still, the NTEU welcomed Freidman's Friday decision to halt what it called an "anti-union, anti-federal employee executive order" while also preparing for the Trump administration to "quickly appeal."
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The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the nation's largest federal workers union, also applauded Friday's news.
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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders led congressional progressives on Friday in condemning the Trump administration's arrest of a county judge in Wisconsin for allegedly helping an undocumented man evade capture by federal immigration agents.
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"It is time for my colleagues in the Republican Party who believe in the Constitution to stand up to his growing authoritarianism," Sanders added.
Other progressive lawmakers also condemned Dugan's arrest, with Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) calling this "a red alert moment" that we "all must rise against."
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said on the social media site X: "Judge Dugan's arrest is outrageous and a fear tactic to our independent judiciary. Trump has always thought he was above the law, but now he's enabling his goons to push that limit as far as it can go. His reckless deportations and flaunting of the Constitution will fail."
Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.)
said on social media that "arresting judges is the kind of crackdown you see in a police state."
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Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said that "Trump's playbook is simple: punish anyone who stands in his way."
"This ain't law and order—it's a rise of authoritarianism in real time," she added.
The FBI arrested a Wisconsin judge who stood up for due process for immigrants. This is unprecedented. All of us need to stand up and speak out against arresting judges in this country. We are living in dangerous times.
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— Rep. Ro Khanna ( @khanna.house.gov) April 25, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Accusing the Trump administration of a "shocking" willingness to "weaponize federal law enforcement," Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) contended that the FBI "coming into a community and arresting a judge is a serious matter" that would require a "high legal bar."
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Advocacy groups including Voces de la Frontera, Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR), and Milwaukee Turners led a Friday afternoon protest against Dugan's arrest outside the Milwaukee County Courthouse.
HAPPENING NOW: A HUGE crowd of protesters have gathered outside a Milwaukee courthouse to support Judge Hannah Dugan after her arrest earlier today
[image or embed]
— Marco Foster ( @marcofoster.bsky.social) April 25, 2025 at 1:46 PM
"To refer to this heinous attack as alarming would be an understatement," MAARPR said in a statement accusing FBI Director Kash Patel of "intentionally being public with his announcement and accusations" and "seeking to bypass Dugan's due process and label her as a criminal before she even has an opportunity to speak up."
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MAARPR continued:
During this period of racist and political repression, we must stand together to denounce today's actions by the FBI. What happened to Dugan is not new. The FBI and other agencies have been emboldened in recent months, snatching people off the streets, separating families, terrorizing communities, breaking doors down of pro-Palestine activists, and contributing to the unjust deportation of immigrants who don't have criminal records. What is new is that they have gone after a judge.
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