WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration today for failing to release public records supporting its unsubstantiated claims that fossil fuels are superior to energy efficiency and renewable energy alternatives.

These claims, included in a 2025 Energy Department order, have been used to justify a raft of climate-heating actions, from keeping coal plants open to killing clean energy projects.

“Americans have a right to see what’s behind these outlandish claims, which have been used to justify an all-out assault on clean energy policies,” said Howard Crystal, a senior attorney at the Center. “People have plenty of reasons not to trust this administration and its oligarchic behavior, and there are real health, economic and environmental consequences from making national policy based on deception and prevarication. The Trump administration needs to put up or shut up.”

For decades the Energy Department has saved consumers billions of dollars with commonsense energy efficiency programs. The renewable energy transition offers similar opportunities to reduce costs and the nation’s reliance on polluting, unreliable, expensive fossil fuels.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s February 2025 order extolls fossil fuels and falsely claims renewable and energy efficiency policies somehow raise energy costs, threaten reliability, and undermine energy and national security. While Texas got almost a third of its affordable energy from renewables in 2024, according to the secretary large-scale renewable energy is a “parasite on the grid!”

Wright’s declarations are having real-world consequences. Since taking office he has:

• Ordered expensive and polluting coal plants to cancel closure plans and remain operating
• Canceled billions Congress appropriated for local renewable energy projects
• Delayed clean energy requirements for federal buildings
• Rolled back energy efficiency programs that have saved consumers billions
• Commissioned a widely debunked report seeking to cast doubt on climate science

The Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Energy Department in February 2025 seeking the studies, data or reports that would support the claims made in Wright’s executive order. So far the agency has failed to respond. The nation’s public records law is meant to give people access to information about the functioning of federal agencies by guaranteeing a response within 20 business days of a request.

Today’s lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.