Trump admin sues Minnesota over state climate lawsuit

MINNEAPOLIS (CN) — The federal government took Minnesota to court Monday in an attempt to stop the state’s legal action against major fossil fuel companies.

Minnesota claims key industry players, including Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries and the American Petroleum Institute are violating state consumer protection laws in misleading the public about the effects of climate change.

The 2020 lawsuit remains pending in state court.

In the government’s 39-page complaint filed in Minnesota federal court, the Justice Department claims Minnesota’s attempt to regulate global greenhouse gas emissions undermines the federal authority.

The Trump administration says federal law “exclusively governs” greenhouse gas regulations, giving the United States authority over matters of interstate air pollution — thereby preempting Minnesota’s state-law claims.

“Minnesota does not even try to ‘hide the obvious,’” the government writes, noting the state is seeking to impose liability for activities often taken in foreign countries. “It seeks a global remedy for a global issue involving global climate change.”

Monday’s lawsuit stems from President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order directing the Justice Department to protect American energy from state overreach — a part of Trump’s efforts to increase the domestic energy supply.

“American energy dominance is threatened, however, when states seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authorities, as with Minnesota’s climate change lawsuit in state court challenged here,” the government writes.

Minnesota claims in its lawsuit fossil fuel giants engaged in a coordinated cover-up regarding the negative effects of climate change, and “well understood” the devastating efforts their products would cause to the climate dating back 40 to 50 years.

“Defendants realized massive profits through largely unabated and expanded extraction, production, promotion, marketing and sale of their fossil-fuel products,” Minnesota said in its complaint, noting ExxonMobil earned around $775 billion during the long period of misinformation.

The suit has been stalled and tied up in court for years before the Minnesota Supreme Court denied the fossil fuel companies’ motions to dismiss last month, allowing the case to move toward discovery.

Beginning around 2020, several states and cities began filing lawsuits against major oil and gas companies through consumer protection and public nuisance laws in an attempt to hold companies financially responsible for the costs of climate change infrastructure and damages.

Two of those states, Hawaii and Michigan, saw pre-emptive legal challenges from the Trump administration — though both were struck down by federal judges.

However, Justice Department suits against New York and Vermont’s Climate Change Superfund Acts — which seek to exact penalties for past greenhouse gas emissions for disaster relief and projects — are still alive.

The federal government contends allowing state courts to set standards would create a patchwork of conflicting regulations that interferes with the executive’s authority over national energy security.

“When states target or discriminate against out-of-state energy producers by imposing significant barriers to interstate and international trade, for example, American energy suffers,” the government writes in its Monday complaint, claiming Minnesota is attempting to disrupt the national energy market.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told Courthouse News in an email the state lawsuit has taken six years because “Big Oil” has pulled every “procedural trick in the book to delay facing the consequences of their actions."

“This frivolous and meritless lawsuit is just their latest attempt to hide from accountability,” Ellison said. “The American people deserve a Department of Justice that fights for us, and it’s a tremendous shame that Trump’s DOJ would rather sell us out to Big Oil."

Fossil fuel giants have heavily disputed Minnesota and the other states’ claims, arguing them to be unfounded attempts to attack the industry.

“These baseless climate lawsuits are a coordinate campaign against an industry that powers everyday life, drives America’s economy and is actively reducing emissions,” American Petroleum Institute Senior Vice President Ryan Meyers told Courthouse News in an email. “The Justice Department is absolutely correct that climate policy can only be set at the federal level, not in a patchwork of state courtrooms.”

Exxon Mobil did not respond to a request for comment Monday.