The United States Attorney General, Pam Bondi, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 30, 2025. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
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The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed demands against Michigan and Hawaii on Wednesday on their legal actions planned against fossil fuel companies due to the damage that their greenhouse gas emissions cage by contributing to the climatic crisis.
The demands, which are not precedent, according to legal experts, affirm that there is a conflict between state actions and the authority of the federal government, as well as the energy agenda of President Donald Trump.
The Department of Justice is also demanding Vermont and New York for its “climate superfund laws.”
“These ideological and ideological motivated laws and demands threaten American energy independence and the economic and national security of our country,” said the United States Attorney Pamela Bondi, in a press release from the Department of Justice. “The Department of Justice is working to ‘unleash American energy’ by stopping these illegitimate impediments to the production of affordable and reliable energy that Americans deserve.”
Trump recently addressed Bondi to take measures to stop the application of state regulations that “unreasonally load the development of domestic energy.” The demands advance an executive order signed by Trump in early April.
The spokesmen of Hawaii’s Democratic Governor Josh Green and the Attorney General of Hawaii, Anne López, confirmed that the State had filed a lawsuit against seven companies affiliated with fossil fuels, close negligence of Publicum and publish Pelolumies, among other accusations, the Associated Press reported.
Green said the demands went to fossil fuel companies responsible for climatic impacts in the state, including the 2023 mortal forest fire.
“This demand is about holding those parties responsible, changing the costs of surviving the climatic crisis where Hawaii’s citizens belong in the future,” Green said in a statement.
Michigan Dana Nessel’s Democratic Attorney General in 2024 hired private law firms to sue the industry for the negative effect of their actions on the environment and the climate of the State.
Nessel said that Michigan has not yet filed his lawsuit, but confirmed the intention of doing so, saying that the oil industry and the White House “will not success in any attempt to prohibit our statements in the courts in advance.”
“This demand is, at best, frivolous and possibly sanctionable,” said Nessel, as Associated Press said.
The interim attached attorney general Adam Gustafson, with the DIJ and Natural Division of the DOJ, said the demands intended to “protect the Americans from the illegal state overreach,” said the press release.
Meanwhile, the complaints filed by the DOJ on Thursday in the United States district courts in New York and Vermont question what the department called “expropriation laws” approved by the States.
The Department of Justice affirms that the Superfund Law on Climate Change in New York and the Vermont Climate Superfund Law “would impose a strict responsibility for energy companies for their world activities that extract or refine fossil fuels.”
Superfund’s laws impose sanctions for the contributions of companies to damage to climate change states.
The New York Law is looking for $ 75 billion of companies, while Vermont’s law does not specify an amount.
“Today’s complaints claim that the New York Climate Change Superfund Law and the Vermont Climate Superfund Law are provided by the Federal Clean Air Law and the Federal Foreign Power of Foreign Affairs, and that Seey Sessstse Totstution. The Department of Justice of the Department of Justice is not constitutional and a court order against its application,” said the DOJ.
Legal experts expressed Conn about the arguments made by the Government.
Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center of Columbia University for the Climate Change Law, said it was “unusual” for the Department of Justice to request judicial intervention in pending environmental litigation.
“[I]T is very unusual, “Gerrard told Associated Press, referring to cases in Hawaii and Michigan.” What we expected is that they would intervene in the pending demands, not to try to avoid or prevent a demand from being filed. It is an aggressive movement in support of the fossil fuel industry. “
Ann Carlson, to University of California, Los Angeles, Professor of Environmental Law, Note The That’s Howfatare and is that and is that and datare and datare and datare and datare and is that and datare and datare and is that and datare and datare and datare and datare and it is that and date and date and date and date and date and date and date and date.
“On the one hand, the United States says that Michigan and other states cannot regulate greenhouse gases because the clean air law does it and, therefore, will prevent states from regulating,” said Carlson, as reported by Associated Press. “On the other hand, the United States is trying to say that the clean air law should not be used to regulate.”
Multiple demands have already filed the leg for the states and other locations to the Battolo Battolo battery or deceiving the public about climate change.
“If the White House or Big Oil wishes to challenge our statements, they can do it when our demand is presented,” said Nessel, as The Hill reported. “I still do not make up in my intention to submit this demand, the president and his great oil donors so fear.”
