Conservation groups have filed the first environmental lawsuit against the Trump administration to protect the ocean from offshore drilling, calling out attempts made by the US President to strip coastal communities of protections as “an utter contempt for the law”.

Before leaving office in January this year, the former President Joe Biden moved to protect large swathes of ocean around the North American coastline from future oil and gas leasing – an order that current President Trump is now trying to revoke.

A cohort of conservation and environmental organisations including Greenpeace, Oceana, and the Center for Biological Diversity has brought a lawsuit to challenge this order, damning the move as an “illegal attempt to take away protections vital to coastal communities.”

The administration is also facing challenges from a second group currently asking a court to reinstate a federal court ruling decided back in 2021 that invalidated an attempt by the first Trump administration to undo Obama-era offshore protections.

It was only last month that Biden moved to protect areas off the eastern Gulf, Atlantic, Pacific, and Alaska coasts by invoking authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. The law authorises the president to withdraw offshore areas from oil and gas leasing.

The law does not, however, authorise current serving presidents to revoke the withdrawal orders issued by prior presidents. In this case, the group argues that – as was confirmed by a federal court back in 2021 when Trump attempted to undo Obama-era protections for the Arctic Ocean and portions of the Atlantic Ocean – Trump’s administration cannot lawfully revoke the protection orders issued by Biden only weeks ago.

“We defeated Trump the first time he tried to roll back protections and sacrifice more of our waters to the oil industry. We’re bringing this abuse of the law to the courts again,” said Earthjustice managing attorney for oceans, Steve Mashuda.

“Trump is illegally trying to take away protections vital to coastal communities that rely on clean, healthy oceans for safe living conditions, thriving economies, and stable ecosystems.”

Campaigners argue that the current administration knows too well the strength of authority under the law, noting that the President has, in fact, used the same authority himself to protect the eastern Gulf and Florida coastline from offshore oil and gas.

“President Biden simply made those protections permanent, something President Trump did not do,” said Martha Collins, executive director of Healthy Gulf. “President Trump has now shown he could care less about protecting the eastern Gulf of Florida.

“Unfortunately, we have to file a lawsuit to stand up against the rash and inconsistent policies of the Trump administration to enforce what both Florida Republicans and Democrats have fought for years on. Permanent protections from offshore oil and gas in Florida.”

In January, former President Biden permanently protected the entire US Atlantic coast, or approximately 269 million acres of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf from Canada to the southern tip of Florida; 65 million acres of the eastern Gulf of Mexico; nearly 250 million acres of federal waters off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California; and 44 million acres in the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area in Alaska.

Earlier in his administration, Biden also protected some 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea and reinstated protections of 125 million acres in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, as well as 3.8 million acres of canyon areas in the north and mid-Atlantic that Trump attempted to undo in his first administration.

Nearly 400 municipalities and more than 2,300 elected officials across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts have come out in formal opposition to the expansion of offshore drilling in these areas, while hundreds of organisations and lawmakers have supported Biden’s action.

Meanwhile, amid claims made that Biden’s protections would disturb US energy security, it has been pointed out that those protections leave open the majority of the Gulf of Mexico for oil leasing, where nearly all of US offshore drilling occurs.

“President Trump’s executive order would roll back millions of acres of ocean protection, jeopardising our coastal economies and the people who rely on healthy, thriving oceans,” said Oceana campaign director, Joseph Gordon. 

“Leaders in both political parties, thousands of businesses, and millions of Americans support permanently protecting our coasts from offshore drilling. We are confident the court will continue to uphold the bipartisan tradition of presidents safeguarding these coastlines and protecting the people who live and work among them.”

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