Trump moves to shield oil companies from climate lawsuits as states push back
Over 30 states and cities suing oil giants for climate damages now face direct legal opposition from the Trump administration, which has begun suing states to block their cases.
Karen Zraick reports for The New York Times.
In short:
- President Trump has called climate liability lawsuits a threat to the economy and ordered the Justice Department to preemptively sue states like Hawaii and Michigan to prevent them from proceeding.
- Attorney General Pamela Bondi filed additional lawsuits against New York and Vermont over laws aimed at making polluters pay for climate adaptation, labeling them threats to national security.
- Despite federal pressure, some lawsuits are advancing in state courts, including a Colorado case allowed to proceed by the state’s Supreme Court, even as other suits have been dismissed or dropped.
Key quote:
“The climate crisis is here, and the costs of surviving it are rising every day. The burden should fall on those who deceived and failed to warn consumers about the climate dangers lurking in their products.”
— Josh Green, governor of Hawaii
Why this matters:
As the climate warms, communities across the United States are racking up billions in damages from floods, fires, droughts and storms — costs that state and local governments argue should be shared by the companies that profited from fossil fuels while allegedly misleading the public about their risks. These lawsuits resemble earlier efforts to hold the tobacco industry accountable and could set powerful legal precedents. But the federal government’s new legal interventions raise the stakes. Suing states to stop climate litigation marks an aggressive defense of fossil fuel interests and could undermine the ability of local governments to recover funds for climate resilience. If successful, this strategy might close off one of the few remaining avenues for holding corporations responsible for climate impacts — especially in the absence of sweeping federal climate policy.
Related: Oil companies seek legal immunity modeled on gun industry’s shield from lawsuits
