The Trump administration has sued four Democratic-led states to try to block their climate-related lawsuits or laws.
On Wednesday, the administration sued Michigan and Hawaii in an attempt to block them from suing fossil fuel companies over climate change.
On Thursday, it sued New York and Vermont over their “climate Superfund” laws — which require fossil fuel companies to pay for emissions stemming from their products.
In lawsuits filed Wednesday, the Justice Department asked federal courts to permanently prevent Michigan and Hawaii from pursuing claims against fossil fuel companies.
The administration argued that it’s up to the federal government — not states — to regulate climate pollution and that therefore these lawsuits are unconstitutional.
It made similar arguments in its cases against New York and Vermont, asking the courts to strike down their laws.
The moves come after President Trump, in an executive order, directed the Justice Department to target state and local climate policies.
Specifically, the order directs the attorney general to try to “stop the enforcement of state laws and continuation of civil actions” that it determines are illegal.
“These burdensome and ideologically motivated laws and lawsuits threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a written statement. “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.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) described the lawsuit against her state as frivolous in a written statement, noting that the state has yet to file a lawsuit — though it has been working on a case.
“As my office’s anticipated lawsuit in this arena is not yet filed and our claims unknown to the administration—as conceded directly in their complaint— this lawsuit is at best frivolous and arguably sanctionable,” Nessel said in a written statement.
“If the White House or Big Oil wish to challenge our claims, they can do so when our lawsuit is filed; they will not succeed in any attempt to preemptively bar our access to make our claims in the courts. I remain undeterred in my intention to file this lawsuit the President and his Big Oil donors so fear,” she added.
Multiple states and localities have already filed lawsuits accusing major oil companies of deceiving the public on climate change — especially in the wake of reporting from 2015 that detailed decades of corporate evidence finding that the world was warming.
The industry has argued that the lawsuits are baseless and politically motivated — and that it provides an important product to consumers.
The lawsuits come as the Trump administration has repeatedly sought to downplay climate change’s impacts and has indicated it would roll back numerous climate regulations.
It also comes as the Environmental Protection Agency says it will reconsider its finding that climate change is a threat to the public.
— Updated at 5:26 p.m. EDT
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