Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A Department of Justice logo is shown on a podium during a news conference, Sept. 30, 2010, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, file)
DETROIT (AP) - The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday filed lawsuits against Hawaii and Michigan over their planned legal action against fossil fuel companies for harms caused by climate change, claiming the state actions conflict with federal government authority and President Donald Trump's energy dominance agenda.
The suits, which legal experts say are unprecedented, mark the latest of the Trump administration's attacks on environmental work and raises concern over states' abilities to retain the power to take climate action without federal opposition.
In court filings, the DOJ said the Clean Air Act - a federal law authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air emissions - "creates a comprehensive program for regulating air pollution in the United States and "displaces" the ability of States to regulate greenhouse gas emissions beyond their borders."
DOJ argues that Hawaii and Michigan are violating the intent of the Act that enables the EPA authority to set nationwide standards for greenhouse gases, citing the states' pending litigation against oil and gas companies for alleged climate damage.
Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel last year tapped private law firms to go after the fossil fuel industry for negatively affecting the state's climate and environment.
Meanwhile, Democratic Hawaii Governor Josh Green plans to target fossil fuel companies that he said should take responsibility for their role in the state's climate impacts, including 2023's deadly Lahaina wildfire.
When burned, fossil fuels release emissions such as carbon dioxide that warm the planet.
Both states' law claims "impermissibly regulate out-of-state greenhouse gas emissions and obstruct the Clean Air Act's comprehensive federal-state framework and EPA's regulatory discretion," DOJ's court filings said.
The DOJ also repeated the Republican president's claims of America's energy emergency and crisis.
"At a time when States should be contributing to a national effort to secure reliable sources of domestic energy," Hawaii and Michigan are "choosing to stand in the way," the filings said.
A spokesperson for Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's office deferred to Nessel when asked for comment. Multiple emails sent to the Attorney General's office were not returned as of Thursday afternoon. A spokesperson for Green's office did not immediately respond to request for comment.
But legal experts raised concern over