Salem, Oregon – Citing state officials, NS ARROW, a local news site in Sacramento, was among the first to report that the multistate lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s proclamation of a “national energy emergency” was updated in early 2026. Oregon is part of the group that sues President Donald Trump.
The new complaint broadens the legal challenge and shows that Democratic-led states, including Oregon, are becoming more opposed to the administration’s use of emergency powers to change federal energy policy.
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown are leading the case, with Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and several other attorney generals part of the coalition. The case was first filed on May 9, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. It includes more than a dozen states that disagree with the legitimacy of Trump’s executive order from January 20, 2025, the day he was sworn in.
The National Emergencies Act was used in that executive order to declare that there was an energy supply problem in the United States. It claimed that problems with the reliability of the grid, especially in the Northeast and on the West Coast, and blamed policies from the previous administration for limiting energy development. The directive told federal agencies to employ emergency powers to speed up the permitting, leasing, and building of domestic energy projects, with a special focus on oil and gas extraction. The quick approach did not include renewable energy sources like wind and solar.
The states say that the proclamation isn’t based on facts. The complaint says that U.S. energy production had reached record highs in recent years and was still growing, which goes against claims of a national emergency. The complaint says that the directive is being utilized to help fossil fuel projects while hurting renewable energy projects.
“We do not have a national energy emergency, period. Yet the President is fabricating one to continue to line the pockets of big corporations,” said California Attorney General Bonta this week, when he announced the update in the lawsuit.
Oregon and the other states have brought up a big issue: how will this affect environmental oversight? The lawsuit says that the executive order puts pressure on federal agencies to disregard or abbreviate evaluations that are required by laws including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act. State officials say that this method might put sensitive habitats, endangered species, cultural resources, and public health at risk, including in Oregon, where big infrastructure projects could happen.
In early 2026, the coalition submitted an updated case that included the U.S. Department of the Interior as a defendant. They did this because they think the department was using the emergency declaration to speed up fossil fuel permits. The case remains unresolved, with litigation ongoing and no final court ruling issued to date.
