The Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division has filed a motion for summary judgment in its challenge to the State of Vermont’s “climate superfund” law.
The law aims to impose liability on foreign and domestic energy companies for their alleged past contributions to climate change.
The complaint was filed in May.
“The Act imposes retroactive strict liability and severe monetary penalties on foreign and domestic energy companies that allegedly contributed to global greenhouse gas emissions over the course of nearly three decades," the motion said. "In so doing, the Act seeks to extend Vermont’s regulatory reach far beyond the State’s borders, purporting to police nationwide airspace and, indeed, the entire world.”
Motion for Summary Judgment - Vermont by scott.mcclallen
The DOJ also sued Michigan, Hawaii, and New York over energy laws or planned lawsuits targeting energy companies.
The New York law seeks $75 billion from energy companies, while the Vermont law seeks an unspecified amount.
The complaint alleges that the New York Climate Change Superfund Act and the Vermont Climate Superfund Act are preempted by the federal Clean Air Act and by the federal foreign affairs power, and that they violate the U.S. Constitution.
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“Vermont is defying federal law, the Constitution, and binding precedent—all so it can punish disfavored businesses for ill-defined harms, without regard to the real harm to our federal system and the Nation’s energy needs," the motion said.
The Justice Department seeks a declaration that these state laws are unconstitutional and an injunction against their enforcement.
The lawsuit cited an executive order from President Donald J. Trump.
“Many States have enacted, or are in the process of enacting, burdensome and ideologically motivated “climate change” or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security. New York, for example, enacted a “climate change” extortion law that seeks to retroactively impose billions in fines (erroneously labelled “compensatory payments”) on traditional energy producers for their purported past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions not only in New York but also anywhere in the United States and the world. Vermont similarly extorts energy producers for alleged past contributions to greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the United States or the globe."
The motion asks the court to “end Vermont’s lawless experiment.”
“Like New York, Vermont is usurping the federal government’s exclusive authority over nationwide and global greenhouse gas emissions,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of ENRD. “More than that, Vermont’s flagrantly unconstitutional statute threatens to throttle energy production, despite this Administration’s efforts to unleash American energy. It’s high time for the courts to put a stop to this crippling state overreach.”
Chief of Staff and Senior General Counsel John Adams and Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General Riley Walters of ENRD filed the motion.
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