WASHINGTON— Environmental groups sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today over the Trump administration’s plan to fast-track the construction of oil and gas pipelines through wetlands, streams and rivers nationwide. The Corps’ latest issuance of Nationwide Permit 12, which was previously struck down by federal courts, would destroy wildlife habitat and endanger drinking water sources from coast to coast.

Today’s lawsuit asserts that the Corps approved the permit in January without analyzing the environmental dangers of pipelines, including oil spills and the destruction of tens of thousands of acres of waterways that people and endangered wildlife rely on.

In 2020 a federal court ruled that the Endangered Species Act requires the Corps to consult with expert wildlife agencies to ensure federally protected animals and plants are not harmed by the nationwide permit program. However, the Corps ignored that order and reissued the permit without considering the potential harm from Nationwide Permit 12 on imperiled species.

Today’s lawsuit also contends the Corps violated the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to fully consider the significant environmental harm from pipeline construction and operation in waters and wetlands.

The Clean Water Act allows the Corps to issue nationwide permits for categories of activities with only minimal impacts, which then means individual projects can usually proceed without any further review. The Corps’ issuance of Nationwide Permit 12 is a blatant abuse of the program, as it authorizes massive oil and gas projects to avoid public scrutiny and a more complete environmental analysis of their potential harm.

“We’re not going to let the Army Corps abandon its obligation to protect our nation’s waters and imperiled wildlife in favor of dangerous pipelines,” said Meg Townsend, a senior freshwater attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Trump administration’s blatant disregard of bedrock environmental laws puts rivers, streams and wetlands at risk of serious contamination, threatening the people and wildlife who rely on these waters.”

“The Army Corps is legally obligated to protect our wetlands and waterways from pollution and destruction. Instead, they're using nationwide permits to streamline extremely destructive projects, such as giant oil and gas pipelines that stand to destroy natural habitats and devastate water quality across the country,” said Daniel E. Estrin, general counsel and legal director for Waterkeeper Alliance. “We're filing suit because our waterways, communities and wildlife deserve protection, not a rubber stamp.”

“The Army Corps has again ignored the most basic tenets of our bedrock laws with this latest attempt to greenlight pipelines and other industrial projects across the country,” said Hallie Templeton, legal director for Friends of the Earth U.S. “It shouldn’t take multiple, consecutive lawsuits to ensure that the federal government complies with its most basic obligations to fully consider significant environmental harms and impacts to protected species, but here we are. Friends of the Earth is proud to stand with our partners in this integral fight to stop unlawful handouts to polluters that could endanger people and the planet.”

“The Army Corps is using Nationwide Permit 12 to sidestep the laws that protect our waters, wetlands and wildlife, and to make it easier for the oil and gas industry to build pipelines with minimal oversight,” said Doug Hayes, a senior attorney at the Sierra Club. “Congress never intended this program to be a shortcut for fossil fuel projects with such widespread and lasting environmental impacts. Communities deserve a thorough review of projects that threaten clean water we all depend on. This lawsuit is intended to ensure the Corps follows the law instead of giving polluters another free pass.”

“The new Nationwide Permit 12 allows pipeline projects to evade meaningful environmental review at a time when the proposed Bridger Pipeline (AKA Keystone XXL) poses major threats to the Missouri, Yellowstone and Poplar rivers — critical waterways that Montanans depend on,” said Shannon James, campaigns and advocacy director at the Montana Environmental Information Center. “Pipelines fail, and allowing them to be approved without adequate environmental review is downright dangerous.”

Background

Nationwide permits offer a shortcut to the Corps’ standard permitting process under section the Clean Water Act. Under the permit, specific projects require no public notice, and in many cases projects covered by these permits may be constructed without any notification to the Corps at all.

The 2026 iteration of Nationwide Permit 12 will allow thousands of discharges of dredged or fill material into the nation’s waters and wetlands from oil and gas pipeline construction. The Corps estimates that it will be used 3,700 times per year, or an estimated 18,500 times over its expected five-year duration, directly impacting approximately 1,500 acres of U.S. waters. These activities, approved with little or no environmental review, threaten iconic species like critically endangered sturgeon and hundreds of species of migratory birds that need wetlands to survive.

In 2019 conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging the 2017 iteration of the permit, and the Trump administration’s use of it to approve the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline. A federal court in Montana found that the Corps had violated the Endangered Species Act by not consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service regarding the harms to endangered wildlife. The Trump administration has ignored that decision and reissued the program without conducting the necessary consultation to ensure imperiled species are protected.