The Trump administration says its decision to walk away from the world’s bedrock climate treaty only strengthens its efforts to block state initiatives to tackle climate change.
The Department of Justice sued New York and Vermont last spring in an effort to invalidate state laws creating “climate Superfunds” that seek payment from energy producers for greenhouse gas emissions.
New York, however, has argued that the administration’s decision to withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change weakens its case because it can no longer claim the climate Superfund law conflicts with U.S. foreign policy to address greenhouse gas emissions.
But in a brief filed last week with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the administration argues that its planned withdrawal supports, rather than undermines, its contention that the state law meddles in foreign policy.
