US Justice Dept sues to block Minnesota's climate change lawsuit

By Nate Raymond

May 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Monday to block Minnesota from moving forward with a long-running lawsuit seeking to hold Exxon Mobil XOM.N and other oil industry participants responsible for harms caused by climate change.

The lawsuit marked the latest in a series of cases President Donald Trump's administration has filed that have sought to prevent Democratic-led states from enforcing laws or pursuing lawsuits that target fossil fuel companies over climate change.

Judges have recently dismissed two similar lawsuits that the Justice Department filed against Michigan and Hawaii, which are among the numerous states and local governments that have in recent years pursued climate-change-related investigations or lawsuits against fossil fuel producers.

The Justice Department's latest lawsuit took aim at a lawsuit that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed in 2020 during Trump's first term against Exxon, Koch Industries and the American Petroleum Institute.

That lawsuit accuses the defendants of fraud and of violating state law by misleading Minnesotans about the climate-change consequences of using fossil fuels. The defendants deny wrongdoing and have been fighting the case for years.

In announcing Monday's lawsuit, the Justice Department cited an executive order Trump signed last year directing it to take action to stop the enforcement of state laws and lawsuits that burden the production of oil and gas.

"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," Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement.

The Justice Department argues that through its lawsuit, Minnesota is seeking in violation of the U.S. Constitution to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, which are the exclusive domain of the federal government.

Ellison in a statement pledged to seek the dismissal of the "frivolous and meritless" lawsuit.

"The American people deserve a Department of Justice that fights for us, and it’s a tremendous shame that Trump’s DOJ would rather sell us out to Big Oil," he said.