The Trump administration has escalated its bid to protect the oil industry from costly climate litigation — even after its earlier efforts faced decisive setbacks in federal court.
In its latest push, the Department of Justice on Monday sued Minnesota in federal court, claiming the state’s lawsuit seeking payment from oil companies for contributing to climate change undermines federal authority and burdens U.S. energy development.
The argument has fallen flat with judges in two other federal courts, who rejected DOJ lawsuits that sought to prevent Michigan and Hawaii from filing climate liability cases. Like Minnesota’s, those lawsuits seek to hold the oil industry financially responsible for the effects of climate change. If the states’ cases are successful, they could cost the oil industry billions.
“This naked political intimidation tactic should meet the same fate,” said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, which backs climate lawsuits against the oil and gas industry. “This is a desperate effort to shield the architects of Big Oil’s decades-long climate deception from facing accountability.”
DOJ’s lawsuit against Minnesota advances an industry priority and follows President Donald Trump’s directive last April ordering the department to take “all appropriate action to stop” the growing number of climate lawsuits. There are more than two dozen climate liability cases working their way through state courts nationwide.
Under former Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom Trump ousted last month, DOJ sued Michigan and Hawaii to prevent the states from filing climate lawsuits, arguing the actions would complicate U.S. energy policy. Both states filed suit, regardless, and two federal judges this spring dismissed the administration’s complaints.
The judges said the federal government had not demonstrated a concrete injury. But DOJ has argued that it won the Michigan case because it forced the state to “content itself” with raising allegations against the oil industry that haven’t been tried before.
Michigan also filed its case in federal court. That’s a departure from most of the other climate liability lawsuits, which have been filed in state court, and the oil industry has spent years trying to move those cases to federal benches.
DOJ under Bondi also sued New York and Vermont in an effort to invalidate state laws creating “climate superfunds” that seek payment from energy producers for greenhouse gas emissions. Those lawsuits are pending.
The department’s lawsuit against Minnesota is the first of its kind filed under acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, filed the state’s lawsuit in 2020 against Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries and the American Petroleum Institute, alleging they misled the public about the dangers of global warming for decades to “pad their own pockets.”
The state’s complaint claims the industry violated Minnesota state laws against consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices and false statements in advertising. DOJ’s lawsuit says that federal law — not state — controls regulation of greenhouse gases.
Ellison, who said he will move to have DOJ’s lawsuit dismissed, said the state still wants to go to trial with its climate liability case “because Big Oil has pulled every procedural trick in the book to delay facing the consequences of their unlawful actions.”
Pat Parenteau, emeritus professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School, who has provided pro bono advice to one of the law firms behind the climate cases, called DOJ’s claim that Minnesota’s lawsuit interferes with federal authority “worthy of 4 Pinocchio’s, if not an SNL skit.”
He added the lawsuit comes on the heels of EPA’s decision to repeal the endangerment finding, removing the linchpin of the agency’s climate regulations.
It’s “another example of Trumpian lawfare intended to harass and intimidate blue states from enforcing their valid consumer protection laws,” Parenteau said.
Minnesota’s lawsuit is one of dozens of challenges from state and local governments that want oil and gas companies to foot the bill for the costs of addressing floods, wildfires and other effects of a warming planet. Most of the lawsuits accuse the fossil fuel industry of deceiving the public about the effects of burning fossil fuel.
The oil industry has convinced several judges — including in California and Washington state — to put the cases on hold because the Supreme Court recently agreed to review a separate climate liability lawsuit filed by Boulder, Colorado.
In that case, the oil industry has asked the high court to find that federal law precludes local governments from suing fossil fuel producers for global greenhouse gas emissions. A decision is not expected until 2027.
The Trump administration isn’t alone in its campaign to stop climate liability cases.
DOJ’s lawsuit against Minnesota comes two weeks after Republicans in Congress introduced legislation to shield oil companies from being held liable for the burning of their products and as several red states have granted legal immunity to the industry.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, in March became the first governor to sign a law that provides a legal shield to corporations and individuals for causing climate-related harm. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds, also a Republican, last Thursday signed legislation to bar climate change lawsuits.
DOJ’s lawsuit says Minnesota’s case has “ignited a conflict among the states.”
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