DOJ Targets Democrat-Led States Over ‘Climate’ Laws Aimed at Oil Companies
Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice have launched lawsuits against several Democrat-controlled states, accusing them of obstructing President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.
On Wednesday, the DOJ filed legal actions against Hawaii and Michigan over their stated intentions to sue fossil fuel companies, blaming them for environmental damage tied to climate change.
In separate cases, the department also went after New York and Vermont for passing laws that force fossil fuel companies to contribute financially to state-run climate funds, citing their past greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Justice Department today filed complaints against the states of New York and Vermont over their ‘climate superfund laws.’ In separate actions, the Justice Department yesterday filed lawsuits against the states of Hawaii and Michigan to prevent each state from suing fossil fuel companies in state court to seek damages for alleged climate change harms,” the agency explained in a press release outlining the series of lawsuits.
The department said its actions follow a directive from President Trump, who instructed Attorney General Bondi to take steps to block state laws that he claims interfere with energy production and drive up costs for consumers. The DOJ said the lawsuits align with Executive Order 14260, titled Protecting American Energy from State Overreach.
“These burdensome and ideologically motivated laws and lawsuits threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security,” Bondi stated. “The Department of Justice is working to ‘Unleash American Energy’ by stopping these illegitimate impediments to the production of affordable, reliable energy that Americans deserve.”
The DOJ pointed to the federal Clean Air Act as the central legal argument, asserting that it gives the Environmental Protection Agency the sole authority to regulate air pollution, thereby limiting states’ ability to impose their own greenhouse gas rules—especially those with interstate implications.
“When states seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authority, they harm the country’s ability to produce energy and they aid our adversaries,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson, who heads the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The Department’s filings seek to protect Americans from unlawful state overreach that would threaten energy independence critical to the well-being and security of all Americans.”
According to the DOJ, the superfund-style climate policies adopted or proposed by these states resemble federal programs originally created to deal with hazardous waste. But the department criticized the state laws as “a transparent monetary-extraction scheme.”
New York has already begun seeking $75 million in damages from oil and gas companies, though that effort is now being contested by 22 other states. Vermont, while having passed its own law, has not yet specified the amount of damages it seeks.
“According to the complaints filed yesterday in the U.S. District Courts for the District of Hawaii and the Western District of Michigan, Hawaii and Michigan intend to sue fossil fuel companies to seek damages for alleged climate change harms. The government alleges that these anticipated actions are preempted by the Clean Air Act and violate the Constitution. Such lawsuits burden energy production, force the American people to pay more for energy, and make the United States less able to defend itself from hostile foreign actors,” the department stated.
“Complaints filed today in U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York and for the District of Vermont challenge expropriative laws passed by New York and Vermont. These ‘climate superfund’ laws would impose strict liability on energy companies for their worldwide activities extracting or refining fossil fuels. The laws assess penalties for those businesses’ purported contributions to harms that those states allegedly are experiencing from climate change. The New York law seeks $75 billion from energy companies, while the Vermont law seeks an unspecified amount,” the press release continued.
“The Justice Department seeks a declaration that these state laws are unconstitutional and an injunction against their enforcement,” it concluded.