finance
DOJ Files Suit to Block Minnesota's 2020 Fraud Claims Against Energy Firms
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint against Minnesota officials to block a 2020 state lawsuit accusing energy companies of misleading the public on climate change. The action follows a 2025 executive order by President Trump directing federal intervention in such cases. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison vowed to seek dismissal of the federal suit.
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The U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota against Minnesota state officials, seeking to halt the state's pending 2020 lawsuit that accuses major energy companies of fraud and deceptive business practices related to climate change.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed the lawsuit in 2020 under state consumer-protection laws against Exxon Mobil, the American Petroleum Institute, Koch Industries, and Flint Hills Resources. The suit alleges the companies misled the public about climate change and the role of fossil-fuel products in causing it.
According to court records, the 2020 Minnesota lawsuit remains pending in state court after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a lower-court ruling that allowed it to proceed there.
The DOJ complaint argues that authority over national energy policy and decisions involving greenhouse gas emissions belongs to the federal government, not individual states, and asks the court to block Minnesota from pursuing the existing case or filing similar ones in the future.
The federal action follows an executive order issued last year by President Donald Trump directing the DOJ to take all appropriate action to stop state lawsuits seeking to dictate national energy policy. The complaint accuses Minnesota of trying to impose its own climate policies on domestic energy producers in a way that burdens national energy development and intrudes on federal authority.
Last year, the DOJ filed similar preemptive lawsuits against Hawaii and Michigan; both were dismissed by federal judges. Separate DOJ challenges to New York and Vermont laws, which seek to impose penalties tied to past greenhouse gas emissions to fund disaster relief and climate-related projects, remain pending.
