President Trump’s Justice Department is going on the legal offensive, suing Michigan and Hawaii in two separate lawsuits ahead of the states’ planned litigation against fossil fuel companies on climate change.
After politicians in both Hawaii and Michigan announced they were planning to sue fossil fuel companies for allegedly contributing to climate change, Mr. Trump’s Justice Department beat them to the courthouse.
In two similar federal lawsuits this week, the federal government argues that the states’ plans run afoul of the Clean Air Act, which sets federal standards for pollution across state lines.
The feds say any state law move to interfere with that is preempted by the federal legislation.
The lawsuit also says Mr. Trump in an executive order on his first day in office declared that the country is “facing an energy crisis” and that energy production is a national security focus.
“If Michigan is permitted to pursue these sorts of state law claims, other States could pursue similar claims, leading to a chaotic ’patchwork’ of regulations that undermine the national interest in readily available and affordable energy and the government’s ability to effectively administer coherent national environmental policy and regulation of global pollution,” the lawsuit filed in the Western District of Michigan read.
“Such fragmentation would frustrate Congress’s intent for a unified federal approach to global air pollution,” it continued.
Local outlets reported last year that the state of Michigan had contracted with three major law firms to bring the activist litigation against fossil fuel companies.
The planned lawsuit, according to the federal government, would interfere with foreign commerce, interstate gas emissions and national energy policy.
“The financial burdens of Michigan’s anticipated lawsuit on fossil fuel businesses increase the United States’ costs for purchasing fuels and threaten revenue from federal leasing,” the complaint read. “The United States seeks to protect citizens nationwide from higher energy costs and economic disruption caused by Michigan’s anticipated overreach.”
The Justice Department asked the courts to enjoin both states from filing such a lawsuit as unconstitutional.
Similarly, the feds filed a lawsuit against Hawaii in the District of Hawaii just two days after its governor announced they would be filing a case against big oil companies to get them to pay for damages he says were caused by climate change due to the fossil fuel industry.
“We will be filing suit, I believe, on Thursday against the fossil fuel companies. They have to pay their share because climate change and the climate impact is definitely connected to generations of extra fossil fuel that’s been burned,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said, according to local Fox affiliate KHON.
His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Trump administration’s lawsuit. A spokesperson from the Michigan attorney general’s office also did not respond to a query from The Washington Times.
The city of Honolulu, along with California and other cities across the country, have launched climate change related claims against major fuel producers like Exxon and Chevron.
While some of the efforts have been dismissed by judges, others are still working their way through the court system.
The Justice Department lawsuits say that over restrictive policies have caused a decrease in American energy development, creating a crisis. That led to the president signing the Protecting American Energy From State Overreach executive order on his first day in office and declaring a national energy crisis.
“As a result of state restrictions and burdens on energy production, the American people are paying more for energy, and the United States is less able to defend itself from hostile foreign actors,” the federal government said in its litigation.
