Washington, D.C. — In response to the Trump Administration’s appeal of a U.S. District Court’s March 2019 decision in the League of Conservation Voters et al  v. Trump to block President Trump’s executive order attempting to reverse permanent protections from offshore drilling for the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, the League of Conservation Voters released the following statement from LCV President Gene Karpinski:

“As we argued earlier, and as the district court concluded, President Trump does not have the authority to reverse permanent protections of our waters from offshore drilling — we look forward to defending the district court’s decision at the Ninth Circuit. Offshore drilling and the associated threat of devastating oil spills puts coastal economies and ways of life at risk while worsening the consequences of climate change. LCV will never stop fighting for our waters and the communities that depend on them.”

League of Conservation Voters et al v Donald J. Trump et al was filed in federal district court in Alaska in May 2017. LCV was joined by a coalition of conservation and Alaska Native groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Alaska Wilderness League, Defenders of Wildlife, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands), Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and The Wilderness Society. A U.S. District Court Judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on March 30, 2019. The case is jointly represented by attorneys from Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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