Trump Attempts to Undermine State Climate Lawsuits in Aim to Protect Big Oil

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration on Thursday filed a series of lawsuits against the states of Michigan, New York, Hawaii, and Vermont, in an attempt to challenge moves by attorneys general to litigate against fossil fuel companies. In New York and Vermont the administration is arguing the states’ Superfund laws that force industry to pay for clean-up after it creates pollution are beyond the scope of state law, while in Michigan and Hawaii, attempts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their role in the climate crisis would run afoul of Trump’s “energy emergency.”

In response, Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement:

“Trump is using a phony energy emergency declaration to illegally attack state climate and clean energy laws. There is no energy emergency, and Trump’s stated reasoning for it is as much a scam as every other pathetic con and hustle this President attempts.

“Fake constitutional claims based on a fake emergency cannot and will not displace sensible and long overdue state efforts to hold dirty energy corporations accountable. These corporations have imposed massive costs on society through their deceptive denial of the realities of climate change, and through rushing us toward climate catastrophe. It’s good policy, common sense, and completely within state authority, for states to hold these corporations accountable.”