By Mark Levy
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A new executive order from President Donald Trump, part of his efforts to stimulate energy production, raises the possibility that the Justice Department will oppose the state’s climate change laws aimed at reducing greenhouse gas pollution that warms the planet from fossil fuels.
Trump’s order, signed Tuesday, comes as US electricity demand increases to meet the growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing applications and to meet the federal government’s efforts to expand high-tech manufacturing. It also coincides with the “Climate Superfund” Act, which has gained traction in various states.
Trump declared a “national energy emergency” and ordered the Attorney General to take action against states that may illegally overpower their powers on how to regulate energy development.
“When state and local governments try to regulate energy beyond constitutional or legal authorities, America’s control of energy is threatened,” Trump ordered.
He said the Attorney General should focus on state laws targeting climate change. Climate change said it would definitely place a liberal nation at the intersection of Trump’s Justice Department.
Michael Gerrard, director of the Savin Climate Change Law Center at Columbia University, said it would be a “very bold move” for the federal government to go to court to overturn state climate laws.
Gerrard said Trump’s quickest path for Justice Department is to try and participate in a court-determined case, where states or cities are beyond their authority, by forcing the fossil fuel industry to pay the costs of climate damages.
Democrats say they won’t retreat
The Democratic governor has vowed to fight climate change.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced Trump of “turning the clock” to the climate, saying his state’s efforts to reduce pollution “will not derail the line with a glorious press release decorated as an executive order.”
The climate mayor of the group, including mayors of America’s biggest city, said in a statement from its chairman, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, that the federal government has overcome its authority and ignored “the enormous costs of continued environmental destruction and the political and social harm of retracting American leaders.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New Mexico Governor Michel Lejean Grisham are co-chairs of the US Climate Union, which includes 22 governors, and said they will “continue to proceed with solutions to the climate crisis.”
Climate Superfund Act has gained traction
Vermont and New York are now fighting federal court challenges against the Climate Superfund Act, passed last year. Trump proposed paying for laws from energy companies and “threatening America’s energy control and our economic and national security.”
The Warwick Power Plant, a coal-powered power plant, operates on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 in Newburgh, Indiana (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
The Warwick Power Plant, a coal-powered power plant, operates on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 in Newburgh, Indiana (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
Crews work to move coal to the Ohio River in Evansville, Indiana on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
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The Warwick Power Plant, a coal-powered power plant, operates on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 in Newburgh, Indiana (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
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Both were modelled on the federal superfund laws 45 years ago, taxing petroleum and chemical companies to pay for the cleanup of sites contaminated by toxic waste. Similarly, the state’s climate law is designed to force major fossil fuel companies to pay state-based funds based on past greenhouse gas emissions.
Several other Democrat-controlled states, including New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oregon and California, are considering similar measures.
The American Petroleum Institute, which represents the oil and natural gas industry, praised Trump’s order, saying “protecting American energy from so-called “climate superfunds.”
“Instructing the Department of Justice to address this state’s overreach will help restore the rule of law and ensure that activist-led campaigns do not prevent the state from accessing affordable and reliable energy supplies,” he said.
The court battle is already underway
The American Petroleum Research Institute, together with the US Chamber of Commerce, filed a lawsuit against Vermont. The lawsuit against New York was filed by West Virginia, along with several coal, gas and oil benefits, including Texas, Ohio and Georgia, as well as 21 other Republican-led states.
He has forced the polluters, a coalition of consumers and anti-legal fuel groups, to pay, vows to fight Trump’s orders, and accused the fossil fuel billionaire of persuading Trump to launch an attack on the nation.
The order marks the “capture of government businesses,” saying it would “weaponize the Department of Justice from the states that deliberately make polluters pay for climate damage.”
Separately, the Justice Department can join lawsuits defending the sued fossil fuel industry, Gerrard said.
These lawsuits seek billions of dollars in damage from wildfires, sea level rises and severe storms in lawsuits filed by Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii and billion-dollar cities and states.
For the past three months, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to be involved in several climate-themed lawsuits.
One was brought by an oil and gas company and asked to block the lawsuit in Honolulu. The other comes from Alabama and Republican Attorney Generals in 18 states that aimed to block lawsuits against the oil and gas industry from democratically-led states, including California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Trump’s order sparked a story at state capitols all over the US
That includes Pennsylvania. There, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro challenges the court’s challenge to regulations that will become the first major fossil fuel production state to force power plant owners to emit greenhouse gases.
John Quigley, a former Pennsylvania Environmental Secretary and a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, wondered whether the Department of Justice would challenge all kinds of state water and air pollution laws.
“This type of order doesn’t know the scope,” Quigley said. “It’s hard to say where this is.”
Associated Press reporter Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California contributed to the report. Follow Marc Levy on X: https://x.com/timelywriter
Original issue: April 10th, 2025, 12:56pm EDT
