WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity sued four Cabinet-level agencies today for failing to release information on the Trump administration’s “action plans” to boost the oil industry and other fossil fuel producers by rolling back and eliminating environmental safeguards.

Today’s lawsuit seeks information from the Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. These agencies and the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” have fired thousands of key civil servants and moved to gut rules that prevent pollution, preserve imperiled wildlife and protect human health.

“The Trump administration and DOGE continue to dismantle environmental safeguards across the nation without a modicum of transparency,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It seems obvious that polluters and other special interests are completely in the driver’s seat and probably ghost writing all of Trump’s pro-fossil fuel directives. Why else would Trump officials be so defiant about illegally keeping the public in the dark?”

Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order required a review of all agency actions that potentially burden oil drillers, coal-mining operations and others in the energy industry. It also required all federal agencies to write action plans that would identify all “regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements, [or] consent orders” that restrain domestic energy production with an eye to repealing them.

Since then, the administration has announced scores of actions that would, among other things, eliminate protections for public lands, open up the Grand Canyon area for uranium mining, and approve, without environmental review, air pollution permits for oil and gas processing facilities.

On Feb. 20 the Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information on the action plans but has yet to receive any records. FOIA ensures public access to information about the functioning of federal agencies within 20 business days of a request. While backlogs in processing FOIA requests are frequent, the Center is concerned that this administration is deliberately blocking public access.

Despite promises by Trump officials to be “maximally transparent,” key FOIA staffers have reportedly been caught in the wave of government-wide layoffs. For example, the office responsible for processing FOIA requests at the Department of Health and Human Services has been “gutted.”

During President Trump’s first term, FOIA lawsuits helped the Center shed light on efforts to undo a coal leasing moratorium on public lands and plans to halt endangered species protections from pesticides. Records obtained from one of the lawsuits showed that former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt had intentionally stalled efforts to protect species from pesticides, which led to an investigation by the inspector general.

Today’s lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Center expects to receive records from the suit in the next two to three months.