WASHINGTON -- The nation's leading environmental groups went to federal court Wednesday to block President Donald Trump from revoking a ban on oil and gas drilling in areas of the Atlantic Ocean, including off the coast of New Jersey.

The organizations, which include the League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club, said Trump had no power to undo President Barack Obama's decision to permanently ban drilling in an area from Massachusetts to Virginia.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Alaska.

"These areas have been permanently protected from the dangers of oil and gas development," said Niel Lawrence, a senior attorney with the defense council.

"President Trump may wish to undo that, and declare our coasts open for business to dirty energy companies, but he simply lacks the authority to do so under the law."

Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said the agency was reviewing the lawsuit.

Trump's executive order issued Friday instructed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to review Obama's decision to ban drilling in an area encompassing 5,990 square miles and containing 31 Atlantic canyons.

That area had been excluded from the original Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument covering 4,913 square miles southeast of Cape Cod, Mass.

The order also instructed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review the Interior Department's 2017-2022 oil leasing plan that put the Atlantic Coast off limits.

At risk could be a New Jersey tourism industry generating $43 billion annually and supporting 500,000 jobs, and a fishing industry adding $7.9 billion a year to the state's economy and creating more than 50,000 jobs.

U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6th Dist.), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, have introduced legislation to permanently ban oil drilling in the Atlantic.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.