“These burdensome and ideologically motivated laws and lawsuits threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it has filed lawsuits against four Democrat-led states in an attempt to prevent them from enforcing “burdensome and ideologically motivated” claims against the oil and gas industry.
According to Reuters, the U.S. Department of Justice filed two separate claims against the states of Vermont and New York, both of which recently adopted laws requiring oil companies to pay billions of dollars into climate change funds. New York expects to raise about $75 billion from this fund—a figure that the Justice Department says is proof that the state is running a “transparent monetary-extraction scheme.”
The Trump administration is also suing Hawaii and Michigan. Both states have passed regulations that the Justice Department claims constitute an “extraordinary extraterritorial reach” that undermines the federal government’s right to regulate certain emissions.
Several of the lawsuits target states planning to take the oil and gas industry to court.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, whose office hired outside counsel to handle climate change-related litigation last year, said that the Trump administration’s attempt to sue is “at best frivolous and arguably sanctionable.”
“I remain undeterred in my intention to file this lawsuit the President and his Big Oil donors so fear,” Nessel said in a statement.
The White House, for its part, has doubled down on its politically-charged rhetoric.
“These burdensome and ideologically motivated laws and lawsuits threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement, adding that the Justice Department hopes to prevent “these illegitimate impediments to the production of affordable, reliable energy that Americans deserve.”
In court filings, Bondi’s office said that all four states are actively impeding the administration’s efforts to bolster domestic energy supply.
“At a time when States should be contributing to a national effort to secure reliable sources of domestic energy,” the Department of Justice wrote in court filings, all four of the plaintiff states are choosing to “stand in the way.”
“This nation’s Constitution and laws do not tolerate this interference,” the lawsuits allege.
But New York Attorney General Letitia James framed the issue differently, saying that her state’s climate “superfund” law “ensures that those who contributed to the climate crisis help pay for the damage they caused.”
A Vermont state senator who supported in-state climate change regulation suggested that the Justice Department’ sudden intervention could indicate that the Trump administration is concerned about the lawsuits’ potential impact.
“The fact that it has gotten the attention of the White House in my mind tells me we’re doing something right now, because just from what we’re seeing from the Trump administration, it tells me this is an important law that other states should follow suit on,” Vermont state Sen. Anne Watson told WCAX.
Several of the plaintiff states are also facing preemptive lawsuits from the oil acnd gas industry.
Sources
Justice Department sues Vermont over climate laws
Trump administration sues four Democratic-led states to block climate laws, lawsuits
Trump administration sues Hawaii, 3 other states to block climate lawsuits, laws
Justice Department sues Hawaii, Michigan, Vermont and New York over state climate actions
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