President Donald Trump’s administration filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday to derail Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s lawfare against the fossil fuel industry.

“At a time when States should be contributing to a national effort to secure reliable sources of domestic energy, Michigan is choosing to stand in the way,” according to the complaint cited by Bloomberg.

The U.S. Justice Department sued both Michigan and Hawaii on Wednesday over efforts to take legal action against fossil fuel companies the states’ respective AGs argue are fueling climate change.

The move by both states to sue fossil fuel companies over climate change “impermissibly regulate out-of-state greenhouse gas emissions and obstruct the Clean Air Act’s comprehensive federal-state framework and EPA’s regulatory discretion,” according to court filings.

In May 2024, Nessel announced her office is soliciting requests “attorneys and law firms with experience and interest in pursuing constitutional, statutory, tort and other applicable common law claims against the fossil fuel industry,” citing shorter ski seasons and impacts “disrupting the wonderful blooms of Holland’s Tulip Time Festival.”

“Severe weather events are on the rise,” Nessel said in a statement at the time. “These impacts threaten not only our way of life but also our economy and pose long-term risks to Michigan’s thriving agribusiness.

“The fossil fuel industry, despite knowing about these consequences, prioritized profits over people and the environment,” Nessel alleged. “Pursuing this litigation will allow us to recoup our costs and hold those responsible for jeopardizing Michigan’s economic future and way of life accountable.”

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Democratic Hawaii Gov. Josh Green has also announced plans to target fossil fuel companies for climate impacts like the state’s deadly Lahaina wildfire in 2023, according to The Associated Press.

Nessel told Bridge Michigan last year she looking to recover “billions of dollars of losses” for environmental damage “caused by these companies that knew exactly what they were doing.”

Michigan and Hawaii are among numerous Democratic-led states that have pursued similar lawsuits in recent years against Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell, and BP, according Reuters.

Claims in the Justice Department lawsuits filed on Wednesday are similar to those from 19 Republican-led states that aimed to block five Democratic-led states from pursuing fossil fuel lawsuits.

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The U.S. Supreme Court in March declined to block those lawsuits, the news wire reports.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday names Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and Nessel for an “extraordinary extraterritorial reach” into U.S. policy on greenhouse gas regulation, arguing Nessel’s threatened lawsuit would raise energy costs and disrupt the nation’s fossil fuel production.

Eight of Michigan’s largest business groups, including the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and associations representing the oil and gas industry, highlighted those same concerns and others in a collective public statement blasting Nessel in June.

“This dangerous and inappropriate use of a state office to attack and demonize Michigan businesses would have a negative and chilling effect on the state’s entire economy. Every business and household in this state relies upon access to affordable and reliable energy,” the letter read. “Our healthcare system, building and construction sector, and manufacturing supply chains all succeed or fail based on this fundamental truth.”

“The actions by the Attorney General are not in line with those realities, nor are they in line with our state’s goals of growing our population, increasing access to affordable housing and childcare, or growing high-income and knowledge-based jobs,” according to the business leaders.

The letter also raised concerns with how Nessel is pursuing the litigation.

“It is additionally problematic the Attorney General is attempting to pursue this litigation by the way of a request for proposal to private trial attorneys, who stand to benefit in the form of massive financial awards through this contingency-fee structure,” business leaders wrote. “This is money that will provide no benefit taxpayers but only enrich a select few who curry the favor of the Attorney General herself.”

The litigation filed Wednesday follows an executive order signed by Trump on the first day of his second term to declare a national energy emergency, which allows the government to speed up permitting by cutting red tape to move on energy projects faster.

In Michigan, the energy emergency allows the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to more quickly assess potential environmental impacts of a proposed tunnel through the Straits of Mackinaw for Enbridge’s Line 5 oil and gas pipeline, a project both Nessel and Whitmer have worked to halt.

Whitmer also signed a “historic clean energy and climate action package” approved by Democrats in the state legislature in 2023 to require 100% “clean energy” by 2040.

Whitmer suggested that legislation “will lower household utility costs, create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, and protect Michigan’s precious air, water, and public health.”

In the months since, Michigan’s monopoly utilities have pursued repeated double-digit rate increases, while tens of thousands of Michiganders have lost their jobs as the state’s unemployment rate has swelled to 5.5%, the second highest in the nation.

“As a result of state restrictions and burdens on energy production, the American people are paying more for energy, and the United States is less able to defend itself from hostile foreign actors,” the Justice Department lawsuit read.