U.S. Justice Department Moves To Block Minnesota Climate Lawsuit Against Oil Industry

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop Minnesota from advancing its long-running climate case against major fossil fuel industry players, escalating the Trump administration’s broader push to shield the oil and gas sector from state-level climate litigation.

The case targets a 2020 lawsuit filed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison against oil industry entities, accusing them of misleading the public about the climate impacts of fossil fuels and violating state consumer protection laws. The defendants have denied the allegations and have spent years contesting the case in court.

The Justice Department argues that Minnesota’s lawsuit oversteps constitutional boundaries by attempting to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, which it says fall under exclusive federal authority. Officials linked the legal action to President Donald Trump’s energy agenda, which prioritizes expanding domestic oil and gas production and limiting what the administration describes as barriers to “American energy dominance.”

The move follows similar federal lawsuits filed against Michigan and Hawaii over climate-related legal actions targeting fossil fuel companies. However, courts recently dismissed both of those cases, dealing setbacks to the administration’s efforts to curb state-led climate litigation.

Minnesota officials strongly criticized the new federal lawsuit, calling it politically motivated and without merit. Attorney General Ellison said the state would seek dismissal of the case, arguing that consumers deserve accountability over alleged misinformation surrounding climate risks.

The dispute highlights the growing legal and political clash between federal energy policy and state-level climate accountability efforts, with broader implications for environmental regulation, corporate liability, and the future of climate litigation in the United States.

Federal intervention in state climate litigation illustrates how contested climate liability is becoming across US jurisdictions, and it affects insurer, lender and O&G corporate risk pricing. Our sustainability-due-diligence and climate-action teams help clients evaluate what these legal battles mean for TCFD-aligned transition-risk disclosure.