Michigan is asking a federal court to dismiss a Trump administration lawsuit that seeks to block the state’s efforts to hold the oil and gas industry financially accountable for the costs of climate change.
In a motion filed Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, the state calls the Trump lawsuit “pure conjecture” and a “speculative and preemptive attack on state sovereignty — contingent on future events that may never occur.”
The motion comes after the Department of Justice went to court in April in an effort to prevent Michigan and Hawaii from joining some other Democratic-led states in suing oil and gas companies over the costs of rising tides and other climate change effects.
Hawaii went ahead with a lawsuit, but Michigan has not yet announced a legal challenge. The state has been exploring the possibility of a climate liability suit for at least a year.
