DOJ Sues Minnesota to Block Climate Deception Case Against Oil Companies
The Trump administration’s Justice Department has sued Minnesota in federal court, seeking to stop the state from moving forward with a climate deception lawsuit against major fossil-fuel interests.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed the original case in 2020 against ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, the American Petroleum Institute and related entities. The state alleges the companies misled Minnesotans about climate change and the role fossil fuels play in driving it.
The DOJ argues Minnesota is using state consumer-protection law to regulate greenhouse gas emissions beyond its borders. In its public statement, the department said Minnesota’s approach is preempted by federal law and undermines affordable domestic energy.
The lawsuit lands at a critical point in the Minnesota case. Ellison’s office said the Minnesota Supreme Court recently declined to review industry appeals, allowing the case to move toward discovery after years of dismissal fights. Discovery could force the parties to exchange documents and testimony tied to the state’s deception claims.
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The federal move also reflects the Trump administration’s wider climate policy. A 2025 White House order directed the attorney general to target state climate laws and legal actions that may burden domestic energy development. EPA later finalized rescission of the 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding, a key legal foundation for federal climate regulation.
Ellison has criticized the DOJ’s action as baseless and politically motivated, while the federal government frames the case as a constitutional fight over who controls national energy policy.
The practical question now is whether Minnesota’s consumer-fraud lawsuit can proceed in state court while the federal government argues it intrudes on national authority over emissions and energy policy.
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