Note: View complaint here.
The Justice Department today filed a complaint against the State of Minnesota over its attempt to regulate global greenhouse gas emissions, which are subject to exclusive federal authority, and override the policy choices of the United States and other states to make energy affordable and reliable. The filing advances President Donald J. Trump’s executive order directing the Justice Department to protect American energy from state overreach. Specifically, the complaint seeks to stop the enforcement of Minnesota’s state court lawsuit that usurps exclusive federal authority and unreasonably burdens domestic energy development.
“President Trump promised to unleash American energy dominance, and Minnesota officials cannot undermine his directive by mandating that their woke climate preferences become the uniform policy of our Nation,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “Minnesota’s attempt to impose a national regulation on global greenhouse gas emissions not only is preempted by federal law, but also undermines affordable and reliable American energy, weakening the national and economic security of the United States.”
“The case we filed against Minnesota today is an attempt to rein in another unconstitutional state effort to invade an area of exclusive federal control,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “It is in America’s interest to have independent and secure sources of energy. Minnesota’s attempted overreach would undermine our economic and national security to advance the climate agenda of politicians and activists.”
According to the complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, the state of Minnesota is attempting to regulate global greenhouse gas emissions by suing energy companies in state court to enjoin global energy production and compel them to disgorge their profits. As Judge Stras of the Eighth Circuit has recognized, such efforts to “set national energy policy” and “change the companies’ behavior on a global scale” are “beyond the limits of state law.”
These efforts are also preempted by the Constitution and the Clean Air Act. Last year, ENRD filed complaints against Hawaii, Michigan, New York, and Vermont to stop those states’ unconstitutional climate actions.
Chief of Staff and Senior Counsel John Adams of ENRD filed the complaint.
