The Trump administration is suing New York and Vermont over their laws to retroactively charge fossil fuel companies for the costs of climate change.
The Justice Department and EPA filed lawsuits Thursday in Vermont and the Southern District of New York challenging the two states’’ “climate Superfund” laws. The administration argued the laws are preempted by the federal Clean Air Act, as well as constitutional protections for interstate commerce and the president’s ability to conduct foreign policy.
The legal challenges comes as the Justice Department also sued Hawaii and Michigan in a bid to prevent those states from suing fossil fuel companies for climate-related damages (see related story). All those moves follow a sweeping executive order President Donald Trump signed in April directing the Justice Department to challenge state-level climate action. That order specifically targeted Vermont and New York’s climate Superfund laws.
Modeled after the “polluter pays” model of the federal Superfund program, the states’ climate Superfund laws each seek billions of dollars from energy companies to fund climate adaptation costs, pegged to the historical emissions of those companies’ products.
