An environmental group leading several lawsuits against the administration sued Secretary of State Rex Tillerson soon after he was fired Tuesday for not meeting the deadline for issuing a climate report under the Paris climate agreement.
The Center for Biological Diversity made good on its threat to sue the State Department if it failed to abide by the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in sending the updated climate data to the United Nations. The group’s lawsuit follows the State Department’s failure to respond to the group’s Feb. 1 Freedom of Information Act request.
“After a year of deadly, record-breaking storms, blowing off climate reporting requirements is wildly irresponsible,” said Jean Su, the group’s associate conservation director. “We need to know who or what is holding up this critical report, given the Trump administration’s dangerous record of climate denial and aversion to transparency.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia soon after reports circulated early Tuesday morning that Tillerson had been fired by President Trump.
The lawsuit asks the court to order the agency to hand over records related to the report’s delay and the timeline for its preparation and release.
