The Trump administration has sued to block Vermont’s effort to make fossil-fuel companies pay for the damages that climate change has caused.
The complaint, filed on Thursday in federal court in Burlington, is the administration’s latest salvo against measures to track and combat climate change. The administration is taking similar action against Hawaii, Michigan and New York State.
In the waning days of last year’s legislative session, Vermont lawmakers adopted the Climate Superfund Act. It’s based on the premise that oil companies knew for decades that their products would warm the planet, and reasons that they are therefore accountable for the damages caused by climate change — as well as for Vermont’s costs to adapt to a warmer climate.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who allowed the bill to become law without his signature, warned that he anticipated expensive litigation.
“Taking on ‘Big Oil’ should not be taken lightly,” he said at the time.
But in a twist, the plaintiffs — for now, anyway — are not oil companies, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the United States. In its complaint, the federal government insists that Vermont is attempting to “usurp” its power to regulate emissions. The complaint says that the U.S. is “facing an energy crisis” and blames excessive regulation for preventing development of American energy sources.
“At a time when States should be contributing to a national effort to secure reliable sources of domestic energy, Vermont has chosen to stand in the way,” the feds allege. The complaint labels Vermont’s law as a “money-extraction scheme.” The costs, it claims, would be borne by “ordinary Americans from coast to coast, individuals around the world, and … the United States Treasury, which receives royalties from oil leases overseen by the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management.”
The complaint notes that Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement in February. Not mentioned in the suit is that his administration has also fired hundreds of scientists who were working on a congressionally mandated climate report. On April 8, the president issued an executive order directing U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine state laws that address climate change.
Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark released a brief statement on Thursday evening. “As Attorney General, I’m always proud to represent Vermont, and I look forward to doing so in this case.”
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group, which supported the legislation, was more pointed.
“This lawsuit is one more instance of our billionaire president holding the fossil fuel industry in a warm embrace by giving Vermonters the finger,” said its executive director, Paul Burns.
An independent nonprofit’s report in 2023 catalogued a decade of disaster declarations. Its authors concluded that Vermont has been particularly hard hit, with at least 17 declared disasters. The state ranked fifth in the nation for per-capita damages, which, at $370 million, equaled roughly $600 per resident.
You can read the federal complaint here: