The federal government is suing Minnesota to try to stop that state’s own lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, the American Petroleum Institute, Koch Industries and its subsidiary, Flint Hills Resources.
The state accused the industry players of violating Minnesota consumer protection laws by misleading the public about the dangers of climate change. That lawsuit, filed six years ago, remains pending, after surviving motions to dismiss in state courts.
The case filed on Monday by the Justice Department in the U.S. District Court for Minnesota accuses state officials of attempting to regulate global greenhouse gas emissions, usurping the power of the federal government.
The federal government’s move to try to stop climate litigation with climate litigation follows an executive order issued by President Trump last year directing the Justice Department to protect the energy industry from “state overreach.”
“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 Stanley E. Woodward Jr., the associate attorney general.
The complaint argues that regulating greenhouse gases falls under the purview of federal law and that the state’s lawsuit undermines the affordability and reliability of American energy, weakening national security. The case names Minnesota and its state attorney general, Keith Ellison, as defendants and seeks an injunction to block the state’s lawsuit from proceeding. The filing also asks the federal court to declare Minnesota’s lawsuit “pre-empted and unlawful.”
Mr. Ellison said on Monday that he had “sued Big Oil for lying to Minnesotans about the true causes of climate change, then sticking us with the bill for the harms it is causing.” He called the Justice Department’s case “frivolous and meritless” and said he would move for immediate dismissal.
“The American people deserve a Department of Justice that fights for us, and it’s a tremendous shame that Trump’s D.O.J. would rather sell us out to Big Oil,” he said.
Mr. Ellison’s lawsuit accuses the defendants of orchestrating a cover-up about the effects of climate change. Exxon Mobil, for example, knew as early as the 1970s that burning oil and gas would harm the planet but refused to publicly acknowledge the consequences and even promoted misinformation, the state claims.
“Minnesota has already experienced billions of dollars of economic harm due to climate change since defendants began their deceptive campaign, and, without serious mitigation, will continue to suffer billions of dollars of damage through midcentury,” the state’s complaint said.
Exxon and other giants in the sector have vigorously disputed the allegations, which recur in numerous lawsuits throughout the country, arguing that they are a baseless and politically motivated attempt to attack the industry through the courts.
Minnesota’s lawsuit was tied up for years in back-and-forth motions over whether it belonged in federal or state court, and was eventually sent back to state court. Earlier this year, Koch Industries, based in Kansas, filed a motion to stop Minnesota’s lawsuit on free speech grounds. The American Petroleum Institute, a trade association, made similar claims, but all were unsuccessful.
None of the defendants named in Minnesota’s lawsuit immediately responded to requests for comment on Monday.
Some three dozen similar lawsuits against fossil fuel companies over their role in climate change have been filed by state and local governments around the country in the last decade. In its upcoming term, the Supreme Court is set to review one of them, filed by Boulder, Colo., in a closely watched case that could have ramifications for the entire batch of litigation.
In the meantime, the Trump administration continues to try to stop the litigation in other ways. Last May, the Justice Department filed unusual pre-emptive lawsuits against Hawaii and Michigan to prevent those states from filing climate lawsuits. But they did so anyway, and judges in both cases dismissed the department’s cases.
But two other Justice Department lawsuits announced the same day, against Vermont and New York over their new “climate superfund” laws, are continuing. Those laws seek to exact penalties from fossil fuel companies for their past greenhouse gas emissions, and to use the funds for disaster relief and climate adaptation projects. Similar proposals are being discussed in a number of other states. The Trump administration is trying to persuade the courts to block the laws’ enactment.
There are also efforts afoot to enact a liability shield for the energy industry from climate lawsuits, both at the state and federal levels. Utah, Oklahoma and Iowa recently passed laws creating liability shields, and lawmakers in Louisiana and Tennessee are working on similar bills. In Congress, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Representative Harriet Hageman, Republican of Wyoming, have introduced a bill called the “Stop Climate Shakedowns Act.”
The Justice Department pointed to those developments in Monday’s complaint, noting that the litigation has “ignited a conflict among the states” that the Constitution “does not tolerate.”
The complaint also alluded to the Environmental Protection Agency’s evolving role in greenhouse gas regulations. Earlier this year, the agency revoked the “endangerment finding,” a 2009 scientific conclusion by the agency that greenhouse gases were a threat to public health. That conclusion was the basis for agency action on climate change under the Clean Air Act.
Some legal scholars said the E.P.A.’s pullback could strengthen the claims from states. But Monday’s complaint, signed by John K. Adams, chief of staff of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, argued that even if the federal government were not regulating greenhouse gases, states could not fill that void.
“Minnesota seeks to regulate emissions that Congress and E.P.A. have chosen not to regulate,” the complaint said. “Such parallel regulation interferes with and conflicts with federal law and policy.”
Karen Zraick covers legal affairs for the Climate desk and the courtroom clashes playing out over climate and environmental policy.
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