Legal Petition Demands Biden Stop Unlawful Fossil Fuel Projects and U.S. Army Corps Halt Approvals
WASHINGTON— More than 380 environmental, public health, Indigenous, faith-based and community groups sent a legal petition today demanding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stop issuing permits, and revoke illegally and inappropriately issued permits, for fossil fuel infrastructure projects.
Coming in the wake of a massive oil pipeline leak off the Southern California coast, the petition calls on the Army Corps to immediately halt new permits for fossil fuel infrastructure and develop a rule that permanently ends their approval.
“This petition gives Biden the roadmap to keep his promises to address the climate emergency and advance environmental justice,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “Biden doesn’t have to choose between doing what’s right on climate and following the law. He has to do both, and we’re showing him how.”
The petition outlines the Army Corps’ legal authority and responsibility to deny permits for fossil fuel infrastructure such as pipelines, import and export terminals, refineries and petrochemical plants. The Clean Water Act and Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 say the Army Corps may not issue any permit if it would be “contrary to the public interest.”
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