The Trump administration is seeking to undercut Minnesota’s legal effort to hold the oil and gas industry financially responsible for the effects of climate change.
A new lawsuit from the Justice Department’s environment division, filed in federal court in Minnesota, argues that the state’s 2020 case against fossil fuel producers usurps federal authority and burdens U.S. energy development.
“President Trump promised to unleash American energy dominance, and Minnesota officials cannot undermine his directive by mandating that their woke climate preferences become the uniform policy of our nation,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward in a Monday press release accompanying the lawsuit.
DOJ’s legal challenge marks the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign to thwart state initiatives to tackle climate change. Federal judges in two separate cases earlier this year dismissed DOJ lawsuits that sought to prevent Michigan and Hawaii from filing climate liability cases similar to Minnesota’s.
