The Department of Justice has filed for an immediate federal court ruling in New York to block the state from imposing billions in liability claims against energy producers based on the state’s “Climate Change Superfund Act.”
The DOJ originally filed against New York in May as part of a broader challenge against similar climate change liability claims made by Vermont, Hawaii and Michigan.
New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul signed what her office described as “landmark” legislation creating the superfund in December 2024. The state blamed energy producers for billions of dollars in liabilities that lawmakers decided the companies created through their business models.
Democratic State Senator Liz Krueger said the state “has fired a shot that will be heard round the world: the companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable.”
The DOJ filing points to an executive order from President Donald Trump that counters states’ damage claims. It specifically noted the New York effort and called it “a climate change extortion law that seeks to retroactively impose billions in fines (erroneously labelled ‘compensatory payments’) on traditional energy producers for their purported past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.”
Trump’s order said the policies “weaken our national security and devastate Americans by driving up energy costs for families coast-to-coast.”
The new DOJ filing in the case asks the New York federal court for an immediate ruling to stop all enforcement of the New York superfund.
Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson said in a release that the court “must put a stop to New York’s brazen disregard of federal law, the Constitution, and binding precedent, not to mention our Nation’s energy needs.”
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