DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department filed lawsuits against four states this week, claiming their climate actions conflict with federal authority and President Donald Trump'senergy dominance agenda.
The DOJ on Wednesday filed lawsuits against Hawaii and Michigan over their plans for legal action against fossil fuel companies for harms caused by climate change. On Thursday, the DOJ sued New York and Vermont, challenging their climate superfund laws that would force fossil fuel companies to pay into state-based funds based on previous greenhouse gas emissions.
“These burdensome and ideologically motivated laws and lawsuits threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement, noting the office hopes to stop "these illegitimate impediments to the production of affordable, reliable energy that Americans deserve.”
The DOJ lawsuits, which legal experts called unprecedented, mark the latest of the Trump administration's attacks on environmental work and raises concern over states' abilities to retain the power to take climate action without federal opposition.
DOJ’s court filings said the states’ plans and policies violate the Clean Air Act — a federal law authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air emissions.
The DOJ argued the act "creates a program for regulating air pollution in the United States and ‘displaces’ the ability of States to regulate greenhouse gas emissions beyond their borders.” It said Wednesday that Hawaii and Michigan battling oil and gas companies for alleged climate damage does not align with EPA authority to set nationwide standards for greenhouse gases.
When burned, fossil fuels release emissions such as carbon dioxide that warm the planet.
Spokespeople for Democratic Hawaii Governor Josh Green and Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez confirmed the state filed its lawsuit against seven groups of affiliated fossil fuel companies and the American Petroleum Institute Thursday, alleging harm to public trust resources, negligence and more.
Green said he is targeting fossil fuel companies that should take responsibility for their role in the state’s climate impacts, including 2023’s deadly Lahaina wildfire.
“This lawsuit is about holding those parties accountable, shifting the costs of surviving the climate crisis back where they belong, and protecting Hawaii citizens into the future,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel last year tapped private law firms to go after the fossil fuel industry for negatively affecting the state’s climate and environment.
“This lawsuit is at best frivolous and arguably sanctionable," Nessel said in a statement Thursday. Nessel noted that Michigan hasn’t yet filed its lawsuit, but confirmed her intent to, and said the White House and the oil industry "will not succeed in any attempt to preemptively bar our access to make our claims in the courts.” A spokesperson for Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office deferred to Nessel when asked for comment.
Meanwhile, Thursday's filings called the states' Superfund Acts — modeled on the 45-year-old federal superfund law enacted to address the harm associated with hazardous waste sites — “a transparent monetary-extraction scheme.” Trump has suggested the superfund laws “extort” money from energy entities.
New York is looking for $75 billion and has been previously challenged by 22 states for its law; Vermont hasn't specified its target amount. Both laws were approved last year.
The DOJ argued the states' acts are also looking to regulate greenhouse gas emissions — nationwide and globally — violating federal government authority.
A spokesperson for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said the governor "believes corporate polluters should pay for the damage done to our environment — not everyday New Yorkers. We will not back down, not from Big Oil, and not from federal overreach.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James said the state's climate superfund law “ensures that those who contributed to the climate crisis help pay for the damage they caused."
Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark said she looked forward to representing Vermont in this case. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott's office did not immediately respond to request for comment.
In its filings, the DOJ repeated the Republican president’s claims of America’s energy emergency and crisis.
“At a time when States should be contributing to a national effort to secure reliable sources of domestic energy,” all four states are choosing "to stand in the way,” all four filings said.
But legal experts raised concern over the government's arguments.
Michael Gerrard, founder and faculty director of the Columbia University Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, said it's typically the case that the DOJ asks a court to intervene in pending environmental litigation — as is the case in some instances across the country.
While this week's suits are consistent with Trump’s plans to oppose state actions that interfere with energy dominance, “it’s highly unusual,” Gerrard told The Associated Press of the cases of Hawaii and Michigan. “What we expected is they would intervene in the pending lawsuits, not to try to preempt or prevent a lawsuit from being filed. It’s an aggressive move in support of the fossil fuel industry."
Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has previously consulted on climate litigation, said this week’s lawsuits look “like DOJ grasping at straws,” noting that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said his agency is seeking to overturn a finding under the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
“So on the one hand the U.S. is saying Michigan, and other states, can’t regulate greenhouse gases because the Clean Air Act does so and therefore preempts states from regulating,” Carlson said. “On the other hand the U.S. is trying to say that the Clean Air Act should not be used to regulate.”
Trump's administration has aggressively targeted climate policy in the name of fossil fuel investment. Federal agencies have announced plans to bolster coal power, roll back landmark water and air regulations, block renewable energy sources and double down on oil and gas expansion.
___
Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment.
___
Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Mich. and Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.
___
Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at [email protected].
___
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Alexa St. John, The Associated Press
