WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity sent a notice today of its intent to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for illegally expediting every pending permit to fill or destroy wetlands across the United States. The permits have been fast-tracked under the guise of President Trump’s executive order declaring a national energy emergency.

Last week the Army Corps reclassified 700 pending wetland permits for projects from Alaska to Florida, which will now be reviewed under their emergency procedures. This action violates the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Today’s notice comes as the Trump administration prepares to announce this week a list of oil, gas and other energy infrastructure projects to be fast tracked.

“Trump’s national energy emergency is illegal, and the Army Corps’ attempt to implement it will do enormous environmental damage and harm some of this country’s most cherished wildlife,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Mindlessly destroying the Florida manatee’s habitat and killing whooping cranes has nothing to do with energy. For Trump it’s all about making symbolic gestures and putting cruelty on full display, not solving actual problems.”

The Clean Water Act does not authorize the Environmental Protection Agency or the U.S. Army Corps to limit or curtail their environmental review based on a declaration of any type of emergency. The Endangered Species Act only allows emergency reviews of agency projects following a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, under the Stafford Act.

In today’s notice, a Center analysis shows that approving these pending permits without following normal, non-emergency processes could result in significant harm to polar bears, whooping cranes, manatees, salmon, sea turtles and other threatened and endangered species across the country.

Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order declared an energy emergency under the National Emergency Act. This law triggers additional presidential powers only under specific statutes when Congress grants those powers to the president. Neither the Clean Water Act nor Endangered Species Act allows a president to circumvent any aspect of either law based on a purported emergency.

“The United States has already become a fossil fuel petrostate to the detriment of this country’s most imperiled animals and plants,” said Hartl. “The actual national emergency we face is the havoc being caused by fossil fuels and climate change. I’m sure the courts will see through Trump’s ploys and recognize that his administration can’t recklessly destroy our wetlands, streams and rivers to satisfy the president’s petty political grievances.”