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.
President Trump recently directed Attorney General Pamela Bondi to take action to stop the enforcement of state laws that unreasonably burden domestic energy development so that energy will once again be reliable and affordable for all Americans. These lawsuits advance President Trump’s directive in Executive Order 14260, 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,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “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.”
“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 of the Justice Department’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 wellbeing and security of all Americans.”
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.
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.
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.
Complaints: