In ‘Highly Unusual’ Move, Trump DOJ Sues to Block States From Holding Fossil Fuel Companies Accountable for Climate Crisis

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday filed lawsuits against Michigan and Hawaii over their planned legal actions against fossil fuel companies for the harm their greenhouse gas emissions caused by contributing to the climate crisis.

The lawsuits — which are unprecedented, according to legal experts — claim there is a conflict between the state actions and federal government authority, as well as President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.

The justice department is also suing Vermont and New York over their “climate superfund laws.”

“These burdensome and ideologically motivated laws and lawsuits threaten American energy independence and our country’s economic and national security,” said U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a press release from the DOJ. “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.”

Bondi was recently directed by Trump to take steps to stop enforcement of state regulations that “unreasonably burden domestic energy development.” The lawsuits advance an executive order signed by Trump in early April.

Spokespersons for Democratic Governor of Hawaii Josh Green and Attorney General of Hawaii Anne Lopez confirmed that the state had on Thursday filed a lawsuit against seven fossil fuel-affiliated companies, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, alleging harm caused to public trust resources and negligence, among other allegations, reported The Associated Press.

Green said the lawsuits targeted fossil fuel companies responsible for climate impacts on the state, including the deadly Lahaina wildfire of 2023.

“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,” Green said in a statement.

Democratic Attorney General of Michigan Dana Nessel in 2024 hired private law firms to sue the industry for the negative effect of its actions on the state’s environment and climate.

Nessel said Michigan has yet to file its lawsuit, but confirmed the intent to do so, saying that the oil industry and the White House “will not succeed in any attempt to preemptively bar our access to make our claims in the courts.”

“This lawsuit is at best frivolous and arguably sanctionable,” Nessel said, as The Associated Press reported.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson with the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said the lawsuits were intended to “protect Americans from unlawful state overreach,” the press release said.

Meanwhile, complaints filed by the DOJ on Thursday in U.S. District Courts in New York and Vermont challenge what the department called “expropriative laws” passed by the states.

The DOJ claims that the New York Climate Change Superfund Act and the Vermont Climate Superfund Act would “impose strict liability on energy companies for their worldwide activities extracting or refining fossil fuels.”

The superfund laws impose penalties for the companies’ contributions to harms to the states from climate change.

The New York law is seeking $75 billion from the companies, while the Vermont law does not specify an amount.

“Today’s complaints allege that the New York Climate Change Superfund Act and the Vermont Climate Superfund Act are preempted by the federal Clean Air Act and by the federal foreign affairs power, and that they violate the U.S. Constitution. The Justice Department seeks a declaration that these state laws are unconstitutional and an injunction against their enforcement,” the DOJ said.

Legal experts expressed concern over the arguments made by the government.

Michael Gerrard, founder of the Columbia University Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, said it was “unusual” for the DOJ to request court intervention in pending environmental litigation.

“[I]t’s highly unusual,” Gerrard told The Associated Press, referring to the cases in 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, a University of California, Los Angeles, professor of environmental law, noted that Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency was looking to overturn a finding made pursuant to the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gas emissions endanger the health and welfare of the public.

“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, as reported by The Associated Press. “On the other hand the U.S. is trying to say that the Clean Air Act should not be used to regulate.”

Multiple lawsuits have already been filed by states and other localities accusing big oil of deceiving the public about climate change.

“If the White House or Big Oil wish to challenge our claims, they can do so when our lawsuit is filed,” Nessel said, as The Hill reported. “I remain undeterred in my intention to file this lawsuit the President and his Big Oil donors so fear.”