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‘Now we have to look at that’, Colorado AG Weiser says of challenging Trump’s energy emergency

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July 8, 2025, 11:05 am

An oil train traveling along the banks of the Colorado River (Colorado Newsline photo).

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office will consider joining a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s declaration in January of a national energy emergency, he told Newsline in an exclusive interview on Saturday.

Last week, the Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management invoked the emergency declaration to complete an accelerated environmental review of a permit to expand a loading facility near Price, Utah for oil coming out of the nearby Uinta Basin. The expansion could increase oil capacity on the main rail line through Colorado by up to 80,000 barrels a day.

It’s anticipated that the expansion of what’s known as the Wildcat Loadout facility — located on publicly owned federal lands — and other nearby facilities will allow the trucking and transfer to rail of up to 75% of the oil proposed for transport in the Uinta Basin Railway project. Eagle County and state officials have long opposed increased oil trains along the Colorado River.

In a June 27 letter to Jerry Davis, acting Utah state director for the BLM, Weiser wrote that an expedited environmental assessment for the proposed Wildcat right-of-way expansion would be a “violation of applicable laws and regulations” that would block proper public input and “subject Colorado communities to significant economic, environmental, and health and safety risks.”

Weiser argued there is no national energy emergency given the United States produced more oil last year than any nation in history, and he urged the BLM to follow standard, legally required procedures in reviewing the project. An attorney for Eagle County and an environmental group that successfully sued the federal government to delay the rail project, also sent letters.

But late Thursday, the BLM issued its approval, finding “no significant impact” related to the expansion, which Colorado opposes due to increased derailment, wildfire and oil-spill risks, and the agency directly cited its authority under Trump’s January executive order declaring a national energy emergency, allowing for the fast-tracking of fossil fuel projects.

On Saturday, before a fundraiser here for his 2026 gubernatorial campaign, Weiser said he had not heard about the expedited approval of the Wildcat Loadout or had time to debrief the ruling.

“I am sorry to hear that. I’m not shocked, but it’s a sign of the times we’re in — the lack of stewardship to protect our land, air, and water is appalling,” Weiser said. “We’re going to have to be creative to find every way we can to make sure that these decisions aren’t being made hastily with long-term, harmful consequences.”

In May, 15 states — led by the attorneys general in Washington and California — filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of Trump’s energy emergency executive order. Calling it a “fake” emergency designed to line the pockets of Big Oil, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown pointed to the order’s exclusion of clean energy projects as it strips away vital environmental protections.

The May lawsuit claims Trump’s declaration of a national energy emergency is a violation of the National Emergencies Act itself, which is designed to prevent frivolous or partisan declarations.

“We don’t think it is a real emergency,” Weiser said Saturday. “Up until now, this national energy emergency order hasn’t affected Colorado. But given these dynamics (of the expedited BLM approval), we’re going to be looking at that to make sure that we can do all we can to protect Colorado.”

Brown and California Attorney General Rob Bonta cited what they deemed illegal fast-tracking of environmental reviews by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in violation of the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, among other key environmental laws.

“The only ‘emergency’ is that the president disagrees with policies to address climate change in Washington state and elsewhere,” Brown wrote in May. “He is illegally using emergency authorities to keep the nation reliant on energy sources like coal, oil and gas.”

Weiser has previously said he will keep all of his options open in opposing the Uinta Basin oil expansion as it seeks to vastly expand oil-train traffic along the headwaters of the endangered Colorado River, which supplies water to more than 40 million people. The BLM approval in a two-week window now has him questioning Trump’s national energy emergency rules.

“So we didn’t have an ability to make this case [back in May], but we at the time said that we would be looking closely at whether and when it would affect Colorado and we’d be ready to file,” Weiser said Saturday. “And with this, now we have to look at it.”

President Joe Biden was sharply criticized by climate activists and others for failing to declare a national climate emergency during his four years in the White House, although he defended his record on promoting clean energy projects and conserving land and water resources. Trump declared his energy emergency on day one of his presidency, despite record oil production.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on Colorado Newsline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.

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