Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Justice Department sued Minnesota Monday “over its attempt to regulate global greenhouse gas emissions,” according to a DOJ press release. Greenhouse gases “are subject to exclusive federal authority,” it states, thus the Minnesota suit would “override the policy choices of the United States and other states to make energy affordable and reliable.”
- The suit, filed in Minnesota District Court, seeks to stop Minnesota’s 2020 lawsuit claiming ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, the American Petroleum Institute and others have misled the public about the dangers of fossil fuels and holding them financially accountable for climate-related harms. That litigation, currently in state court, is “thwarting the United States’ exclusive authority to regulate interstate air pollution, administer federal law, and conduct foreign affairs,” the Justice Department’s lawsuit states.
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“Big Oil has pulled every procedural trick in the book to delay facing the consequences of their unlawful actions,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement emailed to Smart Cities Dive Tuesday. “This frivolous and meritless lawsuit is just their latest attempt to hide from accountability, and I will move to have it dismissed immediately.”
Dive Insight:
At least 20 states and local governments have filed lawsuits to hold oil and gas companies responsible for climate change, and several states have introduced “climate Superfund” legislation requiring fossil fuel companies to pay for infrastructure investments to help states adapt to climate change.
In April 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order, “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach,” directing the U.S. attorney general to take action against state and local laws that “seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authorities.”
The lawsuit filed Monday alleges that the Constitution precludes Minnesota from regulating greenhouse gas emissions because “such emissions implicate uniquely federal interests.” Minnesota’s lawsuit is an attempt to “nationalize its regulatory powers,” which are foreclosed by the Clean Air Act, the lawsuit states.
The DOJ also cites the supremacy clause of the Constitution and the foreign affairs doctrine forbidding states to interfere with national foreign policy in seeking to halt the lawsuit. “Because Minnesota’s lawsuit ‘seeks a global remedy for a global issue,’ it falls outside a traditional state interest,” the lawsuit states.
“The case we filed against Minnesota today is an attempt to rein in another unconstitutional state effort to invade an area of exclusive federal control,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in the press release.
The DOJ is using the same arguments to shut down the city and county of Boulder’s lawsuit claiming Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil are liable for climate change injuries in their jurisdiction.The U.S. Supreme Court announced in February that it will rule on whether the defendants are immune from state-level efforts to hold them accountable for in-state harms.
The Justice Department filed similar suits against New York, Vermont, Hawaii and Michigan last year. Jacob Zoghlin, a partner at Underberg & Kessler, wrote at the time that those suits represented “a pivotal moment in US environmental law” that “could redefine the limits of state authority and corporate liability in the climate context.”
In April, Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate introduced legislation to prohibit lawsuits against fossil fuel-based energy producers and preempt any states’ attempts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
